Twenty Ten

The Christmas boxes are all put away (new storage boxes for a new attic in new garage for a new year...yipee!)...and it's been almost a month since I've paid any amount of attention to my blog. I don't have to tell any of you how busy December gets...but for me, this year was particularly packed. I hope to do a quick re-cap today in order to get some of my favorite December photos posted, but here's a quick rundown of the months highlights (and lowlights...unfortunately there were plenty of those.)

• Sixteen days of blissful holiday vacation - skiing, caroling, baking, singing, and sledding and so much more when you have over half a month off from school and the daddy doesn't leave the state one time!
• My first year in charge of our neighborhood nativity pageant. Lots of work - lots of payoff. There is nothing sweeter nor more humbly attuned to what the holidays are all about.
• My oldest turned 12! I still can't believe "I'M" that old!
• My computer's hard drive crashed. BOO! I lost everything from the last year. It's at it's third "doctor" appointment hoping for any amount of retrieval. Back up those drives folks! My Mac Time Capsule wasn't backing up my information and I am still totally devastated.
• Visits from both sets of grandparents brightened our holidays and couldn't have tickled the kids anymore.
• I was hit in my suv by a drunk driver. No one was injured - but my car has seen better days. I've been driving a rental for nearly a week while new doors and parts are being ordered. It was so surreal to watch the driver take (and fail) all the sobriety tests and be carted off to jail. We felt like we were in a scary movie. As we watched him get handcuffed Max peeped out from the back seat, "Why do people do wrong things?"
• Preparing the primary (our church's children's organization) for 2010 was nothing short of all-consuming. New teaching manuals, class lists, birthday presents, classroom assignments, and last minute budget spending had me working up right up until we cried "Happy New Year"! The three women I've had helping me since our first day (November 1) are truly worker bees with loving hearts and serving souls.
• The girls have been singing with the Salt Lake Children's choir so we spent a great deal of the month traveling around the city watching them perform. If you want to see pictures, check out Bryce's flickr page. My favorite performance was in the beautiful Cathedral of the Madeleine. It was reviewed by the Deseret News here.
• My favorite camera lens broke (will no longer focus.) So the question is to repair or to upgrade? Is it worth repairing? Any of you had this same problem?

Stay tuned for a few pictures. I'm back and more than happy to be posting. (If I hadn't been posting my favorite photos throughout the year, I would have nothing from the amr crash of 2009. I'm so grateful my blog was up and running and updated fairly regularly so I at least a few documented photos from the year.) Hope your 2010 is off to a great start.