Well...Christmas was fantastic.

After six years in Manitoba without my family around (luckily for a couple we were fortunate enough to have Dave's parents with us) we had the chance to spend the holidays with my parents and my sister.

As is typical, us girls sure had some great laughs. We overdid the stockings to a huge degree which led to some almost hysteric laughter at 1:30 in the morning on Christmas day as we saw the fruits of our shopping...(We all decided to get "a couple things" for each stocking) I really wish I had a picture but its on my mom's camera, but you can bet I will post it here when I get my hands on it.

Mom, Lisa and I went to see "4 Christmas's" as a celebration of the Holidays and my birthday and it was a really fun Holiday movie. It is so nice to be able to enjoy stuff like that with them. Many times throughout the Christmas season I closed my eyes and said Thank you for the opportunity to be together.

Although, all my gushing wouldn't be accurate if I didn't mention that my first holidays in quite some time without my friends was also very noticeable. I hope my Manitoban friends know that they are missed always...

I received lots of fantastic gifts this year, but of course the one that made me cry was the camera my sister and husband got for me. My sister gave me a card encouraging me to follow my new passions...I got a Nikon D60, and while I am thoroughly enjoying playing with it, I must say I am quickly humbled. Sure made me appreciate the talents of my friend and mentor Tasha who is an incredibly gifted photographer. Apparently retouching photos is much easier than taking them! But, all joking aside, I am very excited to learn and spend more time than I really should reading up about photography online. I have already started a "piggy bank" to save up for a new lens (it is a fantastic digital counting one from my mom for Christmas, the readout says I have 6.35 saved up already!! WOOOHHHOOO...hehehe)

Other gifts that I totally love are my Cuisinart griddle/grill and mandolin. (that's two separate things) Helps me with my other passion- cooking!

My boys both got me beautiful gifts, a crystal angel with a beautiful poem about mothers from Drew, and a gorgeous bag from Wesley. He has some great taste!!

I am hoping to start a new blog this year. I have been hemming and hawing, because I have been with blogger forever and I would hate to lose it, but I kind of want something a bit more customizable. I want to post photos as I am learning, and be more involved in writing and sharing recipes etc. So we will see!

So, on the dawn of 2009 I am feeling better than I have in a while. I have a job I love, living close to family, a new hobby, drew is now old enough to babysit...Aaaahhhh, so many possibilities!

To top off all the ooey goeey awesomeness, Michelle is coming for a visit in Feb, and I am just so excited to see her!

Anyway, here are a few shots from over the holidays. The boys games for there DS, which was pretty much there favorite gift, although, they are pretty excited about the hockey sticks from papa too :) Anyway, if you click on the pics it will lead to my flickr site and there will be more there as well. Comments are always welcomed :)

Much love to all of you for 2009. I think its gonna be a great one!!