Playing Catch Up

A quick re-cap:

Christmas was great.  We had a great time up north with my family and were pleasantly surprised when it snowed one night since the forecast had predicted weather in the 60's.  My poor kids, though.  We just weren't prepared for the cold and A had to wear the extra jacket my mom brought since I hadn't packed enough warm clothes for her.  One of the highlights of the trip for me (besides rockin' it in American Idol wii) was Christmas day when we had our own little church service there in the cabin.  My sister played her flute with my dad on his guitar and my mom led us in some carols.  Brian and the girls acted out their own crazy (and slightly sacrilegious) version of the Christmas story and my other sister shared some thoughts she'd prepared on the beauty of Christmas.  The only sketchy part of the whole thing was the song my dad and I tried to throw together 20 minutes before.  It was that really pretty song, "Winter Snow" by Audry Assad and I wanted to sing it.  (If you've never heard of her, you should really check her out; I loooove her voice)  Lets just say it sounded like we'd put about 20 minutes of time into practicing it.  But it was in front of family so they were really nice about it.  I loved that we spent that time worshipping together and I hope it'll be a tradition going forward.

Four days after Christmas, Brian and I celebrated our tenth(!) anniversary. 





 I gotta be honest.  I didn't have real high expectations for our anniversary this year since the day before Brian was still asking me what I wanted to do to celebrate.  Every year I get a little frustrated that we picked the day we did to get married since it falls right between Christmas and New Year's and can so easily get lost in the shuffle.  But it turned out to be a really fun day together and I came to a new realization...I love that our anniversary is right at the end of the year and gives us an opportunity to reflect on the past year and get some focus on the year to come.  Its kind of nice that it lines up with the new year and we're in that reflective/ goal-oriented mindset.  We didn't do anything fancy this year but it was such a great day.  We went rock climbing at an indoor gym, saw a great movie (The King's Speech), ate at one of my favorite restaurants (Pita Jungle) and had fun running around in the rain (it poured that day).  It was a good reminder of how much fun we have together and I came to the end of the day loving my marriage and thankful once again for my wonderful husband.

A couple of days after our anniversary we had a fun family time using some money the kids got for Christmas.  Brian had discovered that an outdoor ice skating rink had been set up in our downtown so we jumped at the opportunity to go ice skating in Phoenix and headed out.  It was a great afternoon.  Brian's parents came with us and were so kind to hang out with Mr. L while Brian and the girls and I skated. 

New Years was very low key.  We had plans to go to a friend's house New Years Eve night to celebrate but as it was getting to be time to leave I was feeling tired and pms-y (how's that for a word?) and asked Brian if he'd mind taking the kids and going without me.  I was so happy he obliged and I got to lay around on the couch and watch tv until I fell asleep at 10:30.  Pretty lame, but I'm such a loner sometimes and it was exactly what I felt like doing. 

Now its already 2011 and even nearing the end of January at that.  Crazy!  We're back in to the middle of homeschooling and overall I'm really liking it.  I like that we get to set our schedule for the day based on what works for us and I like that my girls are really becoming each other's best friends.  I've even seen our family draw closer together through this.  It definitely has its frustrating points too but its been a pleasant surprise that I've enjoyed it as much as I have.  One major perk is that we all get to tag along on Brian's work trip to San Diego next week.  We'll just bring some school work along and try to throw a couple of educational outings into it and call it good. 

So I think that's it.  I don't know what I've been putting this off for so long for.  It was really pretty painless.  :)  I actually get intimidated by my blog when I haven't posted for so long since it feels so overwhelming trying to figure out how to get back on track.  There's a new year's resolution for me--let go of my stupid perfectionism and just do what I can!

We'll see, won't we?