Life in the New Year!

Wow, to think that we're already 10 days into 2009 is incredible! Brian and I were laughing on New Year's Eve talking about Y2K and all the concern about the new millenium and how it would affect everything. Thankfully it didn't have the impact everyone thought, but it's fun thinking back and realizing that was already nine years ago. Boy does time fly!

Since this is our first full year together, we sat down last weekend to talk about goals. Not because it's time for "New Year's Resolutions," but because we wanted to be strategic about the coming year versus just letting it happen to us. Well, God did what he always does and made it clear that this is what we needed to do. When we got to church on Sunday, our Life Group talked through 2008 and then talked about setting goals for 2009. It was the perfect little nudge from God that encouraged us to follow through on our discussion and put our thoughts on paper. So now we have our goals posted and we're daily working towards accomplishing them.

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On an update note, we had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's!

Being able to be in MN on Christmas morning was so fun. Our nieces "waited" until 7:30am to come and jump on us and wake us up! So we joined everyone in the living room and we all spent the morning in our pj's, drinking coffee, watching the girls open presents and then playing with them. Most of our time in MN was laid back with little specifically planned. It was wonderful! While we were there the girls got a kitten so we all went to the humane society to pick her out. For not being cat people, both Brian and I really like Skeeter! She's really cute and very playful. (Needless to say, we will NOT be getting our own pet!!!) Besides the trip to get the cat, we had a nice evening out with Brian's mom, sister & brother-in-law. We had the opportunity to see "The Christmas Carol" and it was really well done.

We were back in Waukesha by Sunday evening (12/28) and worked during the beginning of the week. We spent New Year's Eve with the Good's (including a little visit with baby Silas before he went to bed) and the Gruetzmacher's. On Friday of last week we enjoyed a round of "Settlers of Catan" with the Gruetzmacher's and Herman's. I have to laugh because Anna decided that this game is teaching her how to be a better loser. I can completely empathize because I never win! For people like us - competitors - it is a good lesson in learning how to lose gracefully. Thanks for the reminder Anna. :)

Now that the holidays are done we're back to our normal schedules of work, church and time with friends.