Holiday's Over, Back to Reality

Christmas has come and gone... New Year's too. I've missed blogging for a while because of the busyness in the last few weeks. We've attended Christmas concerts (Lily's and my cousin Christy at The People's Church), gone to a wedding (my cousin Wesley, and Rachel), 3 family Christmases, Brad just got back last night from a week in St. Louis (Urbana... maybe I'll be able to convince him to blog about it), the girls had a weeks vacation at Grandma and Grandpa Boo's (Brad's parents), and I've been working full time this past week. Busy, busy, busy. While everyone was out of the house, and when I wasn't working, I managed to get to Home Depot with my sister and paint Lily & Ella's room, "Pooh Bear Yellow"... pretty mellow compared to Elliot Gilmore's room, but really brightens up the space, and a million times better than the white it's been since we moved in. I kept the redecorating a secret from Brad and the girls. Lily wants to spend more time in there now, and Ella keeps running back and forth touching the walls, saying "Ohhh!" I was going to tackle our master bedroom too, but there really wasn't time, and I wanted to make sure that Brad would be happy with the colour too. Oh yeah, I'm also half way through a new book, "Banker to the Poor". I actually gave it to Brad for Christmas, but decided to read it first while he was away. Ha ha!

Somewhere among the busyness I was able to visit with my friends Krista and Kim from Calgary. It wasn't much time, but it was a BLAST!!! We made a couple visits to Bagel World, went shopping at the Yorkdale H&M, had a pot luck at Gilmore's in Oshawa with a bunch of old MBCers (thanks for hosting Joan & Derek), did our own version of a gift exchange (check out Jaime's website to find out more & see pictures), had a late dinner at Montana's. Without them, Lily and Ella's room would have never gotten completed either. They are a lot taller than me, and the taped the ceiling/wall for me with ease. There was only one thing that we weren't able to fit into their visit, a trip to Honest Ed's. They've never been, and I thought that it would be fun to stroll the isles for a bit. Next time.

New Year's was fairly uneventful. If you were in the Toronto area, you would know it was raining, pretty hard too. I was working a close shift that night, our manager gave us permission to close early if it was slow, which got us out an hour earlier. I was scheduled to open the next morning, so asked if I could borrow the couch at my Aunt & Uncle's who live right across the street from my work. We visited for a bit, watched the ball drop on the tv and toasted the New Year with some sparkling juice... and then went right to bed.

After work on Jan. 1st, I headed up to my in-laws to pick up the girls. Lily and Ella had a great time!!! I heard all about the tea parties, birthday parties, pajama parties, dress up parties - you get the idea. I know they were busy with the playdoh making all the pretend food for each of these events too. When we got back to our place, Brad was here waiting for us. It's nice being back together again after a week apart... and a lot messier too!

Well, I think that covers everything for now. All the best to you in the year ahead, and good luck with any resolutions you may have made.