January 27, 2010

2009 In Review

I've always wanted to do this. I know it is waaay overdue and maybe without pictures, not so interesting, but for the record here are the major things that happened in our family in 2009.

The year started off sadly with saying goodbye to my sweet Granddaddy. I've thought of him often since he passed away and I miss him a lot. I'll always remember the touching speech my dad gave at the funeral. Also how it was the only funeral I've been to that kind of had an open mike type thing going on, which was interesting. Lots of people loved him and it was hard to have him leave the world. Ben's Dad's Dad passed away in 2009. In a 12 month timespan we said goodbye to our last three grandparents.

In March a huge hailstorm hit Austin. Bigger-than-golfball sized ice pelting the earth was quite exhilarating to watch. Only later did I learn the kind of damage the stuff can do. We had to replace our roof, screens, playground pieces, and both of our cars were beat up pretty badly.

We collected insurance money on the cars and traded my aging Impala in for a CR-V! Love it!

Great visits from Maria, my mom, Ben's folks, Josué and Nicole, Jill, Aunt Becca, and two visits each from Kathryn and Jason AND Holly and Christian. Also had Daniel and Heather and a dear friend of mine from Tallahassee over to our house. Am I missing anyone?

Did not hold up our end of visiting our friends. Travelled all over Florida and to the Atlanta Georgia area. Ben went to Illinois for his grandpa's funeral. The three of us went to San Antonio to see Maria and go to Sea World. Later I took a little trip to San Antonio to see my cousin graduate boot camp.

We found out we are pregnant! A few months later we learned that it is a boy.

Violet started going to preschool two mornings a week. Soon after that she started wearing glasses.

Ben's parents moved to the area! We love having them around!

Ben managed his team for a little while and throughly hated it. He asked to go back to his old position as Web Developer. Landed an entirely new position, which he loves, as a quasi R&D guy.

We did not send out Christmas cards... Hopefully we'll get our act together next year and you can read about our 2010 that way.

Posted by ben at 09:21 PM

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January 02, 2010

Christmas 2009

We were ready for Christmas this year! For the 24 days leading up to this Christmas we did an activity advent. Every day Violet got to move the little Santa figurine from one day to the next on the advent calendar and a slip of paper would be waiting to be discovered noting what the activity for the day was. Most were very simple. Here are just some of the things she did...

• Decorate the tree and have hot chocolate
• Make a jingle bell bracelet (bells and pipe cleaner)
• Set up the nativity
• Make rudolf ornament out of popsicle sticks
• Go to Marble Falls to see light display
• Make a gingerbread house
• Decorate Christmas cookies
• Make gifts for friends at school (felt mice with candy cane tails)
• Have a special candlelit dinner by the Christmas tree

I want our family to have Christmas traditions. For this purpose I've been collecting Christmas themed storybooks for the past couple of years. I wrapped each in newspaper and Violet opened one a night for the 12 days leading up to Christmas. In keeping with the past couple of years we also fed the birds some cranberries and popcorn. Ben's mom read Santa Mouse on Christmas Eve and Christmas Kitten on Christmas day just as she has been doing since Ben was little. I gave Ben chocolate covered cherries from Santa which is a tradition picked up from my side of the family.

We were supposed to have Ben's family over to our house for Christmas this year but plans changed at the last minute. There was a huge power outage in Austin on Christmas Eve which meant no heat for our house. We aborted the original plans in hopes of having a warmer Christmas morning. We spent the night at Ben's folks house instead and it worked out nicely.

Violet got plenty of presents of course including a handmade robe from Grandma, lots of books and games, and a bedspread from Grammy and Poppy for her new double bed (we need to convert hers back to a crib). Her favorite was probably the robotic cat my aunt and uncle sent. Ben got a magic mouse for his computer cleverly wrapped by his sister to make him think it was a shirt. I love my new Sonicare toothbrush! For the Christmas meal I contributed Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish which was awful as a stand alone dish but lovely as a condiment on ham sandwiches the next day. I heard about it on NPR and was intrigued by the odd combination of ingredients (cranberries, onion, horseradish, sour cream).

We had a very Merry Christmas!

Posted by ben at 01:57 PM

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December 06, 2009

Violetiversary 2009

On September 19th it had been three years since Ben and I first saw Violet's sweet face in her referral picture. Here is the commemorative shot we take this time of year.

December 1st was our actual three year anniversary with her. We watched the video of our first meeting, went to dinner, out for ice cream, talked about her story, and took these at a photo booth. We've got to find a new photo booth for next year! Two were too dark to try to post.

What a wonderful three years! We love you sweetheart!

Posted by ben at 08:54 PM

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