New Year

It's been awhile since my last post. The weather at Christmas changed all our plans. So instead of having all five kids here on Christmas Day we had 0. Mike, Leah, and Caleb and Dad went to church at 5:30 with me and then Mom joined all of us for supper at our house. It was a very nice evening. Christmas Day Jim and I just hung out and watched tv. Jim has actually been under the radar with some health issues and has been pretty much stuck at home since December 17th. Hopefully we'll get a good news when he goes back to the doctor on January 6. All the kids joined us on Saturday except David and Alicia. I had Christmas with them on Sunday and Mike and Leah came again on Sunday. Mary Ellen stayed until Wednesday at which time she took Payton and Finley home with her while John and Kari went to Arizona to cheer on the Cyclones. So we have had a house full of family.

New Year's Eve we have typically been going to a dance with one of our favorite groups, Bare Foot Becky and the Ivan Hoe Dutchmen. But we had to pass on that this year as Jim wasn't up to it. I think I was in bed by 11 something. I really don't like New Year's as a holiday. I don't like all the emphasis on changing years and reviewing what has happened in the last year, bad news events and who has died. I'd rather just move to the next day with little fanfare instead of thinking about how this year will be different than the last year.

Today I took down the tree and David and I went to buy me a new laptop, which I am currently typing on. I think I will like this one. Tonight we (I) babysat with Caleb while Mike and Leah went out to eat to celebrate their first anniversary. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY tomorrow! I managed to find the top to their cake in my freezer.

The weather is absolutely frigid. But if the sun comes out I can tolerate it. The shining sun makes all the difference in my attitude.

Hope this finds all my readers healthy and happy and if I have to talk about the new year I hope it brings nothing but good things for all of you.