Happy New Year!

Overall, 2008 was a pretty good year for us. We moved to our new (and hopefully final!) house, which we all love, and so far we have weathered the economic uncertainty pretty well. We are all healthy, and so are our families. The biggest blessing of 2008 was that my brother-in-law had a bone marrow transplant in July for Hodgkins' and he has come through wonderfully. Last spring things were looking pretty grim, so we are all soooo thankful that he made it through!

I have a few catch up pictures for you, and of course there are more still on my camera from Christmas Day. I got some new photo editing software for Christmas but I haven't played with it yet. I want to try it out on the pictures I have in the camera still.

Here is a shot of the boys piled on the couch watching tv. That's pretty much the year-end photo, as I never did get them all set in front of the tree. Troyer and Samuel did get haircuts the day before Christmas, btw LOL.



Here I experimented with the black and white feature on my camera. I was just playing around so I don't have all the boys in the picture.



Our tree doesn't look as good as it did at the beginning of December. The kitten has been playing with the lower branches (that would be Flame, the younger kitten, not Tigger) and the boys have been moving things and knocking things off. Plus one line of lights midway up have gone out, and I haven't figured out why. Since it is a pre-lit tree, I will have to wait until we take all the ornaments down to be able to check it out competely. All I know is that it is plugged in, and the rest of the lights on that cord work fine.

On the 17th I took the 3 oldest boys down to my sister's to attend her church's production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, which is a "children's opera" about the 3 Wise Men's trip to see the baby Jesus. The set and costumes were great, the singing was impressive for a group of volunteers from a church (this was opera, not just Christmas hymns!) and the best part was that my sister and niece played in the orchestra that accompanied the singers.



We did some marathon baking the last week before Christmas. The first day I let the boys help, which meant it took 3 times longer than usual, and I was sooo tired but not even half way through! I ended up doing the next round by myself and it went much better LOL. I am still not done, as we haven't done the sugar cookies with sprinkles yet. I meant to take some tins of cookies to the neighbors with a card, and it hasn't happened yet. I guess it'll be tins of New Year's cookies now LOL. I DO intend to get them delivered yet!



Last night, New Year's Eve, Troyer and Samuel stayed up with us to bring in the new year. Chris and Samuel went to bed right away, but Troyer stayed up with me for a little while and we watched Dick Clark. I know he does that show for nostalgia's sake, but it was very hard to understand him. I think as a whole it was good as background noise but not so much for watching as entertainment. I am too old to even know most of the musical acts on the show LOL. At least I know who Ryan Seacrest is ;-P

Troyer drew this last night. It is part of a series he has done since 2005:



Happy New Year!