Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!



Yes, I know I'm a week or so late, but hey, better late than never, right? ;)

We had a great New Year's celebration to wrap up an adventurous year and a full filled holiday break. This past year was definitely eventful, if nothing else.

The kids have new little cousins to dote over. Julia started Kindergarten (and loves it). Andrew was baptized and joined the Cub Scouts. Jason earned his Bear in cubs and is stoked to join Webelos in the next couple of weeks (he's actually already been meeting with them). Lynette's having a ball as counselor in Young Women's and I've been busy as counselor in Elder's (I was the Pack Cubmaster for the first ~half of the year as well and that was a lot of fun too). We had a fun family vacation to Yellowstone that everybody loved. A variety of family struggles annoyed both our immediate and external family, but overall, we've pushed through it.

For New Year's Eve, we had a casual, spur of the moment relaxing party at our house. We invited family over and had Karla, my dad and my grandpa hang out and play games. The kids and I played some Chicken Cha-Cha-Cha (Julia's favorite new game from our Christmas haul) as well as Cloud 9, Uno, For Sale and even a little Slap Jack. The adults played some Cartagena, Fearsome Floors, Hearts, Settlers of Catan and Thurn & Taxis. At midnight, we pulled out some "poppers" for the kids to make some noise and lit a couple of ground blooms.


On the evening following New Year's Eve (so New Year's Day--Night?), we had a "Dickens Dinner Party" at the Baxters. Everybody dressed in Victorian dress (including the servant girls) and we all gathered in a lovely Victorian dining room. Amid soft candlelight, we enjoyed salad, cheese, crackers, bread, roast chicken and mashed potatoes. It was a great dinner and a lot of fun.

This past Monday night, the family members each set some goals ranging from "be nice" and "help mom more" to "pay off credit cards." We also decided to get a family exercise regime going and everybody also set a goal for personal scripture study in addition to our family scripture reading.

This next year should be exciting as well.

I'm poised to graduate (finally) in the spring and I'll be sure to have a nice celebration of that event. Jason will be in Webelos and working towards his Webelos and Arrow of Light. We're planning a "staycation" this year and are looking at which summer activities the kids will be involved in (we've got a couple of budding gymnasts hoping for gymnastic classes). Julia will start 1st grade in the fall which means a full day of school for everybody. This doesn't really mean any more time for Lynette (despite the general assumption that it does…since she volunteers in each kids' class), but it will bring some changes.

I'm sure there are other known adventures coming up this year but there are also plenty of unknowns that I'm looking forward to. No matter what happens, a positive attitude, a good outlook, and a willingness to work for the best means that no matter what struggles come our way, we're sure to have a wonderful 2010.

I can't wait. :)