In Your SELF Interest: A New Year Has Come

I have been nervous for this week since Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving because it's the beginning of the holiday season, because we get to decorate, and bake, and watch Christmas movies, and spend time with family, and go to Christmas parties and everything just seems better during the month of December.

I always struggle a little on the actual day of Christmas because it means that it is all over. The lights and Christmas decorations begin to come down, the Christmas music comes to an abrupt hault on the radio, the Christmas goodies disappear.

No wonder I was nervous for this week, January is just a blah month which makes the first week of January a rough one. I was worried because I knew it would be hard being at home all alone with Shae again after almost two weeks up in Pennsylvania surrounded by people. Good news my friends, we made it through the first week of January. The first week after the holidays. The first week of the year. Phewwww. And although I always feel a little twinge of regret after Christmas for not watching more Christmas movies or doing more Christmas service or looking at more Christmas lights or reading more Christmas stories, the nice thing is that you can always count on Christmas to come again.

Now lets upload the rest of our Christmas break pictures and get on with January shall we?

We originally planned to come back to Williamsburg a few days after Christmas but then decided that we just weren't ready for adult life again so quickly so we ended up staying up in PA until the day after New Years. Darin had two weeks off from work (perks of working at a University) so we were able to be flexible.

It was wonderful having so many other people to entertain Shae (and us, lets be honest). We even went on a date! First and only movie in the movie theater of 2013. Having a baby sure does change things. (We saw the Hobbit and LOVED it. At least the first two hours of it...started to get a little long for me after that. I am now OBSESSED with this song that they played during the credits. So. Good. ).

Shae had fun playing with the dogs and cats (aka: Chasing after them, playing in their water bowls, etc), as well as climbing the stairs.

Darin had fun working on puzzles. I've never seen the puzzle side of Darin before. It's pretty intense. He takes them pretty seriously and once he starts he doesn't stop. It was fun to occasionally jump in and help him.

I had fun playing games with my brothers. (Especially Wheel of Fortune on the Wii, I'm kind of addicted and kind of upset that Philip is impossible to beat). On New Years day Darin, A.J. and I played a nine hour games of risk. We ended up calling the game at 10pm because A.J. had school the next day and it just didn't seem to be going anywhere (LOTR's risk is way better than the original. Just saying).

The night before we left we went out with my dad and A.J. to see one of those cool light houses that is in sync with Christmas music. We thought that Shae would really like it but he seemed more awed by the cars passing us and all the fun buttons and levers around the car (I think he really just enjoyed being out of his car seat).

It was sad to say good-bye, as you can clearly see from the picture of Shae with A.J. below (we probably shouldn't wait till bed time to say good-bye and try and take pictures).