Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!

I'm probably breaking some sort of etiquette rule but I'm going to skip the christmas letter and do a christmas blog instead.  This way I can write, delete, write, delete, save drafts, etc and no one will be any the wiser!  It is, after all, pretty hard to sum up a year and every year I tell myself I'll keep a running list of all the good memories, and every year at this time, I wish I would've listened to myself!  Fortunately my wise friend Jessica introduced me to journaling, so I might be able to piece something together....

January: 

My resolution was to stop chewing my nails.  I was successful at times, but failed other times.  As the year draws to a close, they're actually a decent length (translation: long enough to show white but short enough that I don't draw my own blood with them), so I'll consider it a success.

February: 

 My Valentines Day was spent with my two little sweethearts, Bowdrie & Carson, up in Coeur d'Alene.  Bowdrie said "Nellie's funny" ... aawwww, I love that boy.

I read lots of books - anything I could find related to Europe - what a nice way to pass the winter!

March:

I went to Edmonton!  It was super fun to see Kirk and Shannon and their kids again.  It's hard to believe, but I thought the West Edmonton Mall was smaller than I had remembered it.  Bad news for me, since it's still the biggest mall in the world at this point!  I went to a hockey game and saw some of the highlights of Edmonton, all on a snowy evening :-)

April:

Life entered a new phase rather suddenly.  It's called home ownership!  I really had no intention of buying a house right now but isn't that the way it always goes when I go shopping "just to look"?  I found the perfect little house in the perfect little neighborhood and it's 4 blocks from my perfect little job! :-)  I met the realtor on Monday and found the house on Thursday, made my offer on Friday, and signed closing papers 3 weeks later!  I received the key on a Thursday, which gave me about 5 days to pick paint colors, line up a painter, pick out carpet, do some initial packing, AND pack for my big trip which took up the entire month of ...

May:

EUROPE!  Velva and I took 4 weeks off to go on the trip of a lifetime.  We went on a 3-week Rick Steve's Best of Europe tour.  We flew into Belgium, spent a day there in Brussels, then found our way by train to Amsterdam/Haarlem.  The tour was outstanding - see the photos by following the links over there on the right -->

One other exciting discovery, the day we started our tour, was an email from mom saying that Jonathan and Jen were expecting their 3rd kid!  Wooo hooo!  We spent the entire tour thinking pink thoughts :-)

Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, -- uff da!  I loved it all!

June:

We finished our tour in France, then took the Chunnel to London for a grand finale.  Unfortunately we were so tired and museum-ed/church-ed out, we just really wanted to shop and sleep in.  So we did :-)

I came home and spent my first night in my new house - really uneventful, thankfully!  Lots of trips with my little car and then trips with help from friends, but I got it done!  I better not have to move again for a long long time!!

July:

I celebrated the 4th of July with my friends and their girls.  We had a bbq at my house after going to the fairgrounds for the deal they put on there.  

Mom had back surgery in June because she was falling - a lot.  Her knee would just give out and down she'd go.  Unfortunately the recovery didn't go very well and she spent the next few months in misery :-(  

The month ended with a trip to Montana to play with Bowdrie and Carson and hike in Glacier Park with the Glacier Lilies.

August:

I gave up on my plan of waiting until the house was 100% finished before having any sort of open house.  I had a couple of those and enjoyed getting to show off my new digs :-)  There was a lot of feedback on my paint color choices, fortunately most all positive!  

In the ICU we had one particularly heartbreaking patient case (death) that reminded me once again (as if I don't get enough of those on a regular basis) how fragile life is and how quickly it can end.  A young, strong, healthy man was essentially killed by mouse poop.  It's one I'll never forget.

September:

Over Labor Day weekend I went to Omak for a friend's wedding reception.  It was fun stopping in Leavenworth pretending for a moment that I was back in Bavaria!  The drive along the Columbia River with all the apple orchards, especially north of Chelan, was beautiful.  I could get used to that.  Too bad it's so far from everything!

The second half of the month was spent in Minneapolis at the University of Minnesota-Fairview University Medical Center doing the hands-on portion of a Critical Care specialty training program.  I loved Minneapolis and all the great people I met there. It's on my list of places to visit again.

October:

Wow, normally October is a huge month but the economy and both Washington football teams were in the toilet, so I think the highlight was probably eating a carmel apple and listening to the disgusted Huskies announcer! :-)  I always love watching the leaves change colors so I took several walks over to the park near my house to enjoy the colors and the crisp fall air.

November:

I celebrated my 30th birthday! :-)  Rather than my usual celebration of going to Portland with other ladies from work and doing our christmas shopping, I spent two very quiet, very leisurely days in downtown Seattle.  The day of my actual birthday I spent about 5 hours being pampered at a spa until I was so hungry I had to get out of there!  I have no idea how many Vitamin C tabs I munched on trying to keep my stomach from growling!  It was lovely to be lazy!

The next evening was the other highlight of the birthday: a SURPRISE party!  I've never had one thrown in my honor, and it was just fun to spend my birthday surrounded with friends and family.  That was actually my birthday wish from the night before! :-)

I brought Mom home with me to get a 2nd opinion on her back from our neurosurgeon here and long story short, she had a second surgery on her back the day before Thanksgiving.  It's too soon to say if she's 100% fixed or not, because she'll need tons of therapy to get the strength back in her puny little legs but at least she can move her foot, sit, and wear shoes again.  Again, things I'm sure we all take for granted.

Thanksgiving was held here with friends and family and there was much to be thankful for :-)  I was just so happy to have Mom back again!  It's hard to be your best self when you're in constant pain!

And now we're here in December once again.  

I got the niece I was hoping for - Cassidy Jane was born Dec 5th, and while I have yet to meet her, I already love her dearly.  I forget how little babies are when they start out!  Bowdrie turned 4, and time continues to fly.

I enjoyed having some special meeting guests, and I was also super happy to hear that my Dad actually was in meeting on Sunday.  It's probably the first time he's come downstairs for one in 3 or more years!  I hope there will be more positive signs of recovery in the year ahead, no matter how small!

The house looks super cute with all the decorations now that I have a couple fireplaces to decorate, and Yakima is getting dumped with snow (by my standards) so it's going to be a White Christmas after all!  Mom came on the train from Whitefish today to be here for a doctors appt. on Tuesday and odds are quite good she'll be here for Christmas so it's going to be a Merry Christmas for me!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody!