GOODBYE 2010, HELLO 2011

In 2010, we lost some amazing people (and a dear fuzzy), put up with some annoying people, missed some far away people, and were lucky to be surrounded by mostly awesome people!

Goodbye Christmas 2010. Santa was good to us. He was kind enough to leave us part of his beard on the glass of milk we left for him! I guess those extremely marshmallowy Holiday Rice Krispie treats were stickier than we thought!

We rang the new year in with rounds of coughs from most of our family members. Still, we had fun. The yearly tradition of doing puzzles and eating as much turkey, chocolate and potato chips as humanly possibly from Christmas Day through New Year's Eve continued, though I'll admit that the chocolate and potato chip indulgence was mostly just mine.

I hadn't intended to take down the Christmas tree this weekend, but the timing seemed right and with a five year old with more toys than we have space, a five year old who was very eager to spend the next three days playing with these many toys, we decided to try and put Christmas away with as little fuss as possible.

Turns out we got Christmas put away in less time than it takes to speak to in-laws in England and watch Despicable Me for the zillionth time. It seemed to be easier this year somehow. I've been trying to downsize in the past couple of holiday pack ups, and I guess it paid off. But then we don't put out very much Christmas cheer as we spend most of our time with my folks, whose house is a tribute to family and Christmas. It is home. It is joy. It is a winter wonderland, usually minus the snow. My mother spends endless hours decorating. I don't know if she just loves Christmas or just loves that her family loves Christmas. Regardless, she makes the environment, the holiday, magical.

Usually the house looks empty after Christmas decorations have been put away, but not this year, not with a five year old and all her toys all over the house. I used to get depressed after Christmas, but not so much now that I'm a mom.

We'll spend the next couple of days trying to get back to some kind of 'normal' routine before school and work starts again.

Here's to a fantastic year for us all! Happy 2011!