Let's play catch-up...

Although I am starting this blog post Christmas, I still feel the need to share a bit about our December and Christmas with you. This will also be my first practice at importing pictures, links, etc. As much as I'd like to consider myself tech savvy, the sad truth is, new technology scares the bejeesus out of me. I am more like an 80 year old woman than one who just turned 30-something this month. So, give me kudos for at least trying, right?

Matching pj's for all the cousins-Christmas Eve

Jack and his cousin Grace

Luke just couldn't take it anymore

Backyard with snow

December started with a trip to Nashville, TN to celebrate a milestone-which-I'm-not-allowed-to-mention-what-age birthday for my dad. All 6 of his kids gathered to celebrate and he and his wife Donna were gracious enough to put us up in a spacious 2 bedroom dwelling for the weekend. We had a great time, and I would love to see this gathering an annual occurrence if we could swing it. While there, we also hired a professional photographer to take the whole gang's picture.

Harland and family

Christmas followed closely on this trip's heels, and we had a great Christmas. While Luke still remains lukewarm (sorry, it was the only word that fit) about the whole thing, Jack was super excited and counted down the days. We asked Santa for a special early delivery for kids who travel over Christmas, so we were able to celebrate December 20th at our house, and then were off December 22nd for Indiana since some bad weather was due to hit Iowa and we wanted to get out of dodge first. The trip went great, and we were able to stay at my sister Heather's, my mom's, Rob's parents, and my great friend Claudine's house all in the same trip.

Many thanks to the big guy and everyone else who made this Christmas jolly!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello Friends, Family, and strangers in the web stratosphere who have unwittingly stumbled upon my web page via google searches!

I have wanted to start a blog for quite some time now, and my wonderful friend Liz visited recently and helped me set it up. I have resisted, despite much coordinated coercion from friends and family, to join Facebook, similar to my stoic bucking of other trendy things such as Birkenstocks, Crocs, and capri pants, though I did finally break and purchase those once I saw they weren't going away anytime fast. Therefore, I hope that blogging will serve as a welcome substitute.

Now, you might wonder what that title means. I must say, I hesitated to use it for fear that I might come across as pretentious, but finally decided, if you know me, you know I am not pretentious. You see, for us, after living in a neighborhood where all the houses were close together and the yards measured in square feet instead of acres, this does feel like living on a plantation for us. I can finally have a garden, we have real woods around us, and trees big enough to do some serious damage if they fall over on the house. Sooo, I am glad you are here.

I would like to use this blog to keep you all updated on the daily doings of our life, but just as importantly, use it to remind myself of all the blessings in my life. My 2010 resolution (one of them at least) is to be more content. I have a million reasons to be happy and have a content heart, but somehow, it is easy to focus on all the other stuff. I think writing it down will be a reminder to me that my life is pretty great and I need to remember that.

So buckle up tight y'all as I enter into this learning curve they call blogging. It'll only get better from here...