Merry Christmas!

Do not ask me why it is the first day of Bryan and my vacation and we are both up at 7:30! I hope this is not a sign that we are getting old! Ha ha. But maybe it is all the excitement of Christmas that has been building up! Let me tell you, I am looking forward to a quiet next couple of days with family, because starting Wednesday I have assigned myself lots of projects that I put off until my Christmas break! Bryan will be working on his car too...sigh. But we are planning on hopefully going to Seattle this coming weekend...I will let you know! And then there is the tradition we started last year of sitting on the couch all day on New Years and just watching movies. I am REALLY looking forward to that even though in no way am I a couch potato! Maybe that is why I am looking forward to it so much...Fuz will probably be up to his usual antics. Every day is the same for him: Get up, follow us around for 30 minutes, stop at any sink we turn on to dip his paws in for a refreshing treat, and then crash for the next few hours. We would like to know if he has good days or bad days, but he has yet to tell us.

Speaking of bad days, what a week last week was! Last Sunday night I believe I was in a state of euphoria and looking back, I should have been nervous. Whenever things are going REALLY well in my life (and Bryan's) it is never too long after that that things start unraveling.

Without hitting all the dirty details, we encountered yet another dental emergency for Bryan that will result in more money and more frustrations with our dental providers (priority #1 over Christmas break: file a complaint with the company and switch providers), I had to deal with a small issue for one of my kids at school that led to a brawl with a parent and resulted in a bigger issue involving more staff (though it was a relief to find out just how supportive my staff is and I am not at all worried anymore about what this parent thinks...neither is my principal! What an awesome guy!), my Christmas party could have been WAY better for myself and the parents, though on account of this one parent I felt I had no control and the kitchen almost burned down, but the kids had fun, and FINALLY we will be expecting a Christmas card from the Beaverton Police who snapped a wonderful front and back end shot of my car last night as it careened through an intersection at a fast pace, and oh yes, the light was red. It was my car, registered in only my name, but who was driving? Oh yes, that would be my wonderful husband who in his defense says he thought the line was closer and because it was wet had no time to stop. So how much more money will this cost us? Bryan thinks I can get out of it if I prove that I was not driving (hopefully the pic will show up of his face in the driver seat) because the car will then be considered "borrowed". I will just say it was my brother in law driving and he is from Idaho where there are no stoplights (Awwww... SNAP!).

Of course, these are the lowlights but there are plenty of good things that happened last week. For example, we got our grocery shopping done, the apartment is clean, the Christmas cards are out, presents are wrapped and under the tree, my sister and her family are in town, my kids at school are just as cute as ever (one even made Bryan and I a tic tac toe game to do together over Christmas break...how cute!), Mom came and helped me do a couple of Christmas art activities at school that went really well, I have developed some really nice friendships with staff and other parents at school, and with people at church, and I have TWO WEEKS OFF! Boo-ya!

And just out of curiosity, has any girl ever forgotten her maiden name after only a year and a half of marriage? I spent 22 (almost 23) years of my life with one name and a couple weeks ago I was talking with someone who knew someone else in high school and she wanted to know what my maiden name was and for about 10 seconds I could not remember! What is wrong with me?! Maybe it is because my new name and my last name are so similar that it wasn't like a big change for me. Although it took a lot of time standing in line just to change a few simple letters!

May your heart be light and God bless you in 2008! Instead of focusing on presents and consumerism, let's recapture the hope that the shepherds and the wiseman found over 2000 years ago when they found our Savior lying in that manger! Have a very Merry CHRISTmas!