Well, I think I set a record for myself regarding the longest time without blogging. I have had several intentions over the past few weeks, but every time I'd be determined to...something bigger would come up.
The past few weeks have been such a bittersweet ending to a year gone by and an optimistic glimpse of the new year to come!
My nephew's birthday was the 23rd of December and we were invited to meet them for pizza and bowling which came as a fairly big surprise. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun with my family. We laughed, we mocked one another's bowling skills and merely enjoyed each others' company. Of course yours truly had the winning game for the night...even though I am anything but competitive. :)
Christmas Eve was more of the same. When I arrived home from work the CA family was hanging out around the tree playing Christmas word scramble games.
This year I used a little of my creativity for some of my gifts. For my sister-in-law, I framed a picture of my nephew facing a sunset as well as pictures I had taken of my niece and nephew. I'm pretty sure she knew I had been up to something...but she acted surprised, and even claimed it made her cry. For my sister-in-law and I...that was a pretty big moment. My brother's girlfriend received a black and white of the Golden Gate, and my mom received pictures of the grandkids.
Nick has never been so difficult to shop for as he is at 13. UGH!!! The gift from his grandma and grandpa was a hit, though. A Sniper-looking Nerf gun. We practically had to pry it out of my 23 year-old brother's hands which made him cry... :) Not really, but he and his nephews were scattered throughout the house attacking each other until midnight while my niece enjoyed playing with the night vision binoculars that I bought for Nick.
My "big" gift was nothing I asked for...and certainly nothing I would have been smart enough to ask for. It's a good thing that my dad looks out for me. I now have an external hard drive that holds a terabyte...which means absolutely nothing to me other than it will hold a whole lot of pictures.
Aside from the gifts and watching everyone play with them...it was so amazing to just sit, as a family. In peace. In unity. And in love. For those of you who know about family dysfunction, you should know how huge it is when you all get along.
Christmas Day my dad took my mom, Nick, and I to the snow. It was a blast, and I loved having the chance to do that. I miss the snow, especially at Christmas.
December 26th was my dad's birthday. (December is a busy month for the Brooks family!) My brother's family came over for dinner and when I got home from church the majority of them were at the table playing Monopoly. I sat around with my sister-in-law and nephew, tried to blog but then my nephew asked me if I would play cards with he and his mom. Who would say no to THAT? So I sat on the floor with the two of them and we played a game called "Pit." Cute game, but it was cuter when Landon made up his own rules to the game merely to benefit his hand of cards. Which was fine...but then we got too busy laughing and giggling and tickling that it didn't even really matter. I loved seeing my sister-in-law laugh at my behavior toward her son. I don't get that much...and it was the best gift I received on this Christmas weekend.
The past few weeks, I have worked my tail off, I have spoken to dear friends, I have loved every minute I had the opportunity to hang out with my family, and I have cherished the many hours of playing Mario with Nick on Wii.
So blogging has taken the backseat, and I don't even feel bad about it.
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