New Year and New Hope

The holidays have come and gone, and mostly, they were very enjoyable. We hosted Christmas Eve dinner here, with eight members of the family: my mom and dad, my two sisters, Breanna, Brenden, Dave and me. Brenden arrived first, and was pleasant and polite enough. He didn't come to Christmas Eve church service with us, but I didn't really expect him to. Breanna wanted to come to church, but was very tired, so she went home. Here is a picture of Breanna that night, about 7 months pregnant.

It was strange to wake up on Christmas Day with no kids in the house. But Dave and I enjoyed a quiet morning, and then everyone gathered at my mom and dad's in the afternoon. For Breanna, it was practically a baby shower. She received lots of tiny pink booties, blankets, bibs, and more. We had a delicious prime rib dinner, and I even had a taste of the meat. (Don't call the vegetarian police on me!)

The day after Christmas, Dave left for a 4-day golf vacation. I stayed home and mostly weeded out and organized closets. I've been on a de-cluttering binge for a couple months and have significantly lightened the load by donating mass quantities of clothes and household items to the DAV and AmVets. The garage is the last frontier to be organized. Dave and I will have to tackle that together.

New Year's weekend was low-key. Dave was recuperating from oral surgery, so didn't feel like doing much. I spent some time with my parents and sister Julie. (Lori had left by then.) On New Year's Eve, Dave and I watched "The DaVinci Code" and then konked out right after midnight.

Breanna finally went to the community clinic for the cough/cold she's had forever. They gave her several meds and she's feeling much better. She has temporary MediCal right now, and hopefully will have full coverage by the time the baby arrives. Last Friday, she left work early because she was having some sharp contraction-type pains! She came over here and we monitored things for a couple hours, and determined they were Braxton-Hicks contractions--false labor pains. The community clinic told her what to do, and what to watch for that would indicate a problem. We're really not quite ready for a delivery, so "Stay in there, baby!" Since then Breanna feels twinges here and there, but they don't seem too bad.

Brenden had to go to the doctor, too, with a poison oak rash. He got some lotion and it's better now. His job at the pizza place is going well. He seems to like the independent study he's involved with, too.

So 2007 is underway. I'm glad last year is over, but also glad for many lessons learned. And I have great faith that the year ahead will be one of blessings for us all. I hope I'll hear from you soon.