And So It Begins

Another year has begun. It is still hard for me to believe that the year is now 2008, but believe it or not, here it is. The holiday season is now basically over and on Saturday, I will go ahead and take down the decorations. I usually do it on New Year's Day, but my hubby and I were just kind of enjoying having a "lounging around the house" day, so I figured they could stay up until the weekend. It isn't as though I have something in every nook and cranny anyway, so the process won't be that time consuming.

I read back over my goals list for 2007. Some of them I can check off, some of them, well, no one is perfect. I will probably come up with a new list for this year, but I kind of like to let the start of the year sink in a little bit first. I don't really think of them as resolutions - something that I am that resolved about doing - but more like things I would like to do this year.

One thing that Dan and I purchased for Christmas was a new digital camera. I hope to learn how to use it more proficiently and effectively, but I will leave this start to the new year with a few pictures from the holidays.

This is one of my great-nieces, Emma. Her mother was the flower girl at our wedding and she is really quite enjoyable to be around. To me, she looks just like her grandfather which would be my oldest brother, Terry. As people were leaving she would wave and tell them to "drive safe" which was about the sweetest thing you could have heard. She is almost 2 years old.

The picture on the left is a group of the most wonderful girls. In the back row on the left is my niece Vikki. She is in nurses training in California. Next is my niece Laura, she is in school in Florida. My lovely daughter Carrie is holding my youngest great niece, Elizabeth. In the next row are four of my other great nieces. Elena, Jennifer, Hannah and again, Emma. Elizabeth, Hannah and Jennifer are sisters and are the daughters of my oldest nephew, Michael.

Having mentioned Michael, this is the whole family, including his lovely wife, Kate and Santa (played by Kate's brother). Michael was more like a little brother to me than a nephew as they lived in the house right next door to us and we are actually closer in age (6 years) than I am with any of my older brothers. He will have his hands full some day with three cute daughters to keep track of. He and Kate do a great job - I wish I had her energy and patience.

Now to switch to the other side of the family. This is a picture of Dan's sisters boys, Kevin and Kyle with Isaac and Carrie. Each year for Christmas, Dan's dad get the boys some sort of winter attire, usually a coat and hat or gloves, or in the case of 2007, vests and hats. Carrie is modeling her new fleece jacket. They are usually pretty cooperative with getting "the picture". It amazes me how much they have grown up already. I remember when Carrie was by far the tallest in this group picture.

Well, I feel like I have shared the old home movies of our family vacation. But, for historical purposes and because I think family is important (the older I get the more precious these pictures are to me) you will have to suffer through. Plus, with Dan's help, I have finally gotten the hang of getting the pictures from the camera to the computer to this blog. I have more that will probably be making appearances from time to time.

Well my job here is done for now. I wanted to start the year off with a post on January 1. Check. I hope everyone had a safe and happy start to this new year and many blessings to all of you.

Peace and hope for 2008 -
JAH