In honor of the new year

Every year we create a list of things we enjoyed from the outgoing year. This year, as a midweek special, we're sharing our list with you:

Top 20 things from 2008 (in no specific order)

1. Trip to Mexico
2. Became an aunt/uncle
3. Kim's promotion at work
4. Eric getting LASIK
5. Home improvements: new living room carpet, brick pavers, new ac/heater
6. Kim's dad gets a job in town
7. Flyers games...and the Flyers making an NIT run
8. Chicago trip…Wicked and Bears game!
9. Concerts: summer concerts at the Fraze, Journey in Cincy and TSO in C'bus
10. Comedians: Eddie Izzard, Tom Wilson (Biff from Back to the Future)
11. Zoos: C'bus in summer and Cincy for zoo lights
12. Festivals: Strawberry Fest, Garlic Fest, Sauerkraut Fest
13. Digitizing and looking through the Albert photo albums
14. Creating Bears' cornhole boards
15. Peanut stories. Seriously, how cute is he? (Dash and Splash, stealing hamburgers)
16. Work cookout (for Kim and Eric's offices) at our house
17. Canoe trip
18. Saints (Eric's high school) are state football champs
19. Spending time with friends
20. Dinner at the Melting Pot

Happy Holidays!

This week went by quickly...too quickly! On the bright side, though, we feel pretty well rested after having five days off. It's going to be difficult to go back to work tomorrow!

On Christmas Eve day, we bummed around most of the day (and Eric happily commented on the fact that his coworkers were at work while he was at home!). We then went to carols and "midnight" Mass at the Chapel, which was pleasantly not too crowded.

When we woke up on Christmas morning, we were glad to see that we both made the nice list this year (amazing, I know). Santa was very good to both of us, and he even left some goodies for Peanut! Peanut found his bag right away, and stuck his head in to see what he got. But he wasn't sure if he was allowed to take it or not, so he quickly sat next to the bag, gave us big puppy eyes, and let out a big whine ("Can I get it? Can I? Can I?"). Once we gave him the okay, he took off down the hallway with his new bone, and we didn't see him for quite awhile!



On Friday, Kim went to an office party while Eric opted to stay home and watch scary movies. Then on Saturday, we met up with one of Eric's friends and his wife for dinner at the Hofbrauhaus, followed by lights at the zoo. The zoo lights were pretty amazing -- the entire zoo was lit up with LED lights, decorations, hot chocolate vendors, and a giant Christmas tree. Plus we got to see reindeer (they must have stopped at the zoo to rest after their trip around the world) a bunch of the nocturnal animals who are normally asleep during the day.




Current gas price: $1.51/gallon.

Baby, it's cold outside.

And by cold, we mean COLD. It's currently 4 degrees, and with the windchill it's -17. (Just 2 hours ago, it was "only" -11, so the temperature is falling fast). We're definitely not looking forward to leaving the house tomorrow to go to work. On the bright side, though, at least it's only a two day work week!

But back to this week. Kim's division had a holiday luncheon on Monday, so she got a nice lunch...and the afternoon off! Eric's office had a luncheon on Thursday, but he had to work the rest of the day (bummer). Both of us did get our Christmas shopping done this week though, so we're ready for the big day!

Yesterday afternoon, Matt and his friend Lindsay came to visit, and we headed out to see the TransSiberian Orchestra. The concert itself was awesome (as always), and we had a great time. Unfortunately, the ride home was awful. It started sleeting while we were in the concert, so the roads were pretty slick. We encountered our first accident on the onramp as we were trying to get on the highway (at 11:30 p.m.). Fortunately the police quickly got ramps set up, and we were (slowly) on our way.

Not so fortunately, we encountered a terrible mess about 30 minutes into our drive home. We could see that a semi was turned perpindicular to the road about a half mile where we were...and traffic was at a complete standstill. We went less than .2 miles in an hour, and we were really, really glad we didn't get another soda for the ride home. After about 90 minutes (so it's nearing 1:30 a.m. at this point), the right lane finally started creeping forward. The accident itself was horrendous (a car slid under a semi), so we were very glad to be safe and sound. We finally got home about 2:30 a.m., and instantly fell asleep. Needless to say, we've been dragging today!

Kim's dad came over for dinner tonight, and we sampled a wide variety of holiday treats. Hopefully there are enough left we can still take goody bags to our neighbors :)

Current gas price: $1.54/gallon.

Uneventful week

No real news this week. Or at least, if anything did happen this week, we can't think of what it was! Eric came down with the cold that's going around early in the week, so we spent a good deal of time bumming around the house.

We did get out to dinner with Mike, Erin and Leah earlier in the week, and Kim went to see Barbi (and Evan and Laura) this today.

We went to the Flyers game last night, and the first 16 minutes were tense ones. But for whatever reason, just before half time, the team decided to get their act together and played much, much better. For those of you keeping track, we're now 9-1.

Kim's mom lost power during the big ice storm this week - not a good time of year for that to happen (brrr!). Fortunately the power came back on this morning, so we're hoping that she and the house are both thawed out by now!

We have a feeling this week will go by just as quickly...it's hard to believe it's just 10 days until Christmas!

Current gas price: $1.75/gallon.

Westward, ho

We were too tired to post last night...but better late than never! We spent the weekend in Illinois in order to celebrate Addison's baptism.

Unfortunately, the drive there on Saturday morning was horrendous. An ice/sleet/snow storm was moving across the Midwest, and apparently the salt trucks missed the memo. We went no more than 40 mph through Indiana, and we counted 33 vehicles (including 2 semis, 1 camper and 1 police car) in the ditch/median. At one point, the SUV behind us fishtailed, slid into the left lane, overcorrected and slid off into the grassy area on the right side of the road, narrowly missed a pole, and then made it back onto the road. Very scary. On the bright side, we made it there in one piece (in a car that was very filthy).

The weekend itself was great, and we were so glad to get to see everyone. Hopefully it won't be too long before we're all together again!

Current gas price: $1.59/gallon.