The turn of a decade

I didn't realize that with 2010 looming just days away, we had 10 years under our belt since 2000. For those of you that really know me, I know that's not surprising to you. I have always been god awful at math. Other numbers to consider: I'm in the middle of my 14th season with the ice rink. Yukon turned 5 this year. Bumble turned 4 this year and it's our 4th winter in Chicago. We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary this year. It's our 2nd time celebrating Christmas in Chicago and Tony celebrated a 2nd DCI World Championship with the Blue Devils. Hmm. Have to think about what happened for the first time ever this last year...

I wrote our annual holiday letter and finally ordered the photo cards today, so will hopefully get these out the door in the next week. I have completely given up trying to get them out in December... I have so many reasons that I just can't get it done. I do love getting everyone else's in December though. Tony was very surprised that I could capture a significant something worth mentioning for every month of last year. Some things required me going back in my calendar while other things were unforgettable.

So, it's that time of year when we make resolutions. I used to make them, never achieve them and then pretend I never had them to begin with. Then, I decided not to have any since I didn't believe that I would ever reach them. But what about now? Now, they are more like things that I hope to do and want to make time to do, but they are not things that I'm going to kill myself to do. This year, I really want to get back into crafts. I literally have thousands of dollars worth of scrapbook, stamping and other craft supplies. I've taken a couple years off from picture taking and I want to get back to it. Both of my Mom's have lots of pictures that need properly archived and captioned, so I think I should focus on doing this with them. I also really want to buy a sewing machine and learn to sew. I have very rough skills at this, but I think my good friend Susan, has really inspired me to make some real efforts to get into this. I'd like to start off small and just make some tablecloths, placemats and cloth napkins. I only want to do this if I can tackle the scrapbooking and stamping.

The other thing that I really want to focus on is reading. My sister-in-law bought me Twilight last year and loaned me the rest of the series and I just can't get into it. I can't believe that it's this hard for me to get into. I have a huge stack of books that I want to conquer and I'd also like to find a REAL book club. Not one where everyone doesn't read the book, gets drunk on wine and then talks crap about their significant other... one where everyone reads the books and really challenges one another to discuss. Since I think that I'm going to be traveling less, I am hoping to try the Chicago Lakeshore Alumnae Book Club - it looks like they are going to try to get it going again.

I'm looking forward to a short work week. I want to enjoy the Christmas decorations while I can and before we have to do the unpleasant process of putting it all away. I really love how our tree turned out this year :-)