Is it really 2011?

I didn't realize how long it'd been since I wrote anything!  There really isn't much going on.  Christmas was great.  We stayed home rather than traveling to Michigan this year.  I missed my Michigan family so much.  I love our family parties, and I always feel like I'm missing out when we aren't there, but I know we have to be fair and stay here and have holidays with my in-laws too.  My family is just so huge, and there is something about being around my aunts, uncles and cousins and my kids experiencing the traditions I experienced growing up.  It's still so weird to me that Nick's family is so small, but I've realized that is more the norm.  I don't think most people have family reunions that consist of 100+ people, and that was just my dads siblings and their significant others, all the cousins, and their significant others, their kids (and their significant others), and even two of the great-grandkids now have kids!  While I don't ever want to move back to Michigan, sometimes it'd be nice to be close to everyone.  I just miss them when I'm not there.

New Years Eve/my birthday came and went without much partying.  My husband attempted to plan a surprise party, but eveyrone always has plans on New Years Eve.  It didn't matter because I ended up sick on my birthday anyway.  Not that fun to spend half your birthday in bed with the room spinning like your on one of those crazy rides at the fair.  Blech.

Now we're into the new year trying to get into a new groove.  My daycare kids, Joshua and Sylvia are back after a week and a half off, Nick has been back to work for a week after being off since Christmas Eve, and next week all of our normal activies will be back in full swing.  We've got some goals for the year, but I hesitate to share them all because some are more personal than others.  One is to tighten up our budget and stick to it.  We've had a budget for a long time.  But we didn't stick to it like we should.  I know we're only 9 days into January, but so far, we're doing pretty well.  Nick comes home from Monicals and we go down the budget and start putting his tip money in appropriate envelopes, see what has to be paid from the checking account, and we are even ahead of what we thought on some things.  It's really a great feeling.

Now I have some cleaning up to do, and I need to make Nick's lunch for work tomorrow, but I'll leave you with pictures of my three favorite kids from Christmas!

Another goal I have is to read 6 non-fiction books a year, not including my moms group or Sunday school books.  I used to read a lot.  Now when I have down time, I watch TV.  I want to read more, I want to learn more.  I want my kids to see me read.