A new year in the "big city"

We rocked-in 2009 with some Rockband 2 and maybe a little champagne....and the neighbor's fireworks/loud music/bonfire/partying until 2 a.m. (*ahem* thanks *ahem* neighbors!).

I also worked on my knitting. Did I mention I'm trying to learn to knit? It's really just so I can impress my grandmother...who is like...the QUEEN of knitting. I took pictures of E's Christmas gift...which was an awesome "no-knit" scarf that I made myself the week before Christmas. :D

J bought an awesome 80's metal guitar with his Christmas cash...and walked around the house making Gene Simmons' faces and throwing up his classic rock hand gestures.

I've written and rewritten this post nine times.

I have this little belief that you can tell how your year was by looking at your bank account, your photos and (recently) your twitter or social networking site of your choice. Since some of that is privileged information, I wrote a post earlier with pictures from every month. I can describe that to you in one word: "baby." It was definitely the year of the baby for us here at the H house. In January I was 8 months pregnant. In February, S was born. And from there to the end of the year, we were documenting milestones...baby's first laugh, baby's first Easter, baby's first tummy time, baby's first rolling over, baby's first road trip, baby's first July 4th, baby's first solid food, baby's first crawl, baby's first stand-up, baby's first Halloween, baby's first Thanksgiving, baby's first Christmas, baby's first snow...etc.

I have another little belief that you can tell how your year is going to be by looking at how you spend New Year's Day. Our day was spent with our little family. We worked on hobbies, cleaned the house, danced in the living room, played all day, rested when it was needed, and then I capped off the evening with dinner and a lot of good conversation with E. We talked about our year and where we are now in our marriages, our friendships, our families, and where we want to go in the next year. We talked about our long term goals, we laughed at stories we hadn't told each other, we cried over memories and achievements. It was a good day, full of normal every-day activities and a few extraordinary moments; and I expect nothing more of the year to come.





Willkommen 2009. Willkommen.