happy 2009.

Man, I can't believe the last post I wrote was over a month ago, and was merely celebrating another holiday. Now, here I am, welcoming in 2009 nearly a week late. I really don't need to keep up this practice.

Of course, I've been busy. And, like always, I'll provide you with a short-handed version of what I've been up to.

The family

It was a big ol' family reunion with my nuclear family for Christmas 2008, and it was 8 days of glorious family time. Mom, dad, and brother flew in from Japan, and sister and nephew came in from Georgia. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love my family. Sure, we're all weird and annoying in our own respect, but we get along just fine and the laughter never stops when we're together. We drove around and looked at Christmas lights, played Guess Who & poker, watched movies, cooked fabulous meals, and shopped.

The gifts

Christmas also brought a barrage of AMAZING gifts. It was a year of huge blessings, with our two gifts of an entire brand new dining room set and a digital SLR. We were speechless, seriously.

The house

With family coming into town, the husband decided he wanted to really get cracking at remodeling the house again. We worked on the house for 3-4 weeks before family came. Painted the bathroom an entirely different color, changed hardware, re-mudded walls, it was like a short, intense version of remodeling the house when we first bought it.

New Year's

New year's was pretty basic. We went to a friend's house and hung out with his girlfriend and family, then went to the in-laws and played games and hung out with their friends, and then came home around 11:30 to ring in 2009, just the two of us. We had fun. =)

The friends/work/birthday

It's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster this week, with one dear friend leaving permanently for the west coast, celebrating a birthday and having a slammed week at work. The birthday started off with a wake-up call from Ma, followed by a call from a girlfriend, and work took me out for lunch. I had been craving a turkey sandwich from a local Mom & Pop place, and we had a good work lunch together. I even got a sweet, sweet recording of birthday wishes from a special someone overseas e-mailed to me! =)

Bub surprised me with a birthday dinner at PF Chang's with all of our closest friends, my best friend, and the in-laws. It was a genuine surprise and I grinned from ear to ear the entire night. Then went out shopping, which I hardly ever do, and I got some new shirts & a dress. Yes, even a dress.

This isn't the normal writing style for me, I know, and I'm leaving a lot of information out, but I think I've glazed over the meaty parts of the last month. Today's been pretty slammed as well, and I'm about to pass out on my keyboard.

After I eat an oreo truffle, though. ;)