So Many Books, So Little Time

I love books. I'm going to try to keep track of how many I actually read this year. I'm ready to start the 4th book in the Death Gate Cycle series by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. I need to pick up One Day by David Nicholls for my January book club meeting. Has anyone read The Pillars of the Earth or the sequel, World Without End by Ken Follett? I think 3 different people over the past 2 weeks have told me how great it is. Looks like I'll be picking that one up this weekend too.

I really have no idea how many books I read a year, but I do know that I am seldom without one. I was on a favorite message board today and people were saying they had read 100-130 books during 2010. They were setting goals for 2011. I don't really have a goal, I just think it will be interesting to see not only how many books I read, but the different genres too. Just for fun!

Gwen Skis with Grandpa

Brent's friend Lynn Baker called earlier in the week to say that he wanted to ski on Friday and was bringing his daughter, Jenna for a lesson. It seemed like the perfect time to take Gwen for her first lesson this season and get her ready for the Mountain Explorer program which starts next weekend.

Gwen and Jenna hit it off great with lots giggling. They both had a good lesson where they took the magic carpet up and made it around the kid's Discovery area. Gwen is very close to being able to make some turns and I suspect that it won't take much time in Mt. Explorers before she's making pretty turns down the mountain.

After the lesson, everyone was hungry. We thought we'd head home after lunch, but Gwen really wanted to ski some more. So they all headed back out onto the mountain to ski at the bottom of the beginners area. They'd ski down, ride the magic carpet back up, and head back down.

Seriously, how cute is this? Brent was so tickled to spend this time with Gwen. We are both really excited that not only is she doing good, she's really having fun.

She did great and we're looking forward to next week when she starts her Mountain Explorer lessons. These will run for each Saturday for the entire month of January. They run 6 hours a day, include lunch, and the kids are always with the same bunch of kids and have the same instructors. We've heard really great things about the program and can't wait to see how Gwen does. If today

was any example, she's going to do fatnastic!

Christmas

Our celebration this year included Christmas Eve, Christmas, and the day after Christmas. Everyone gathered at our house late Christmas Eve afternoon. Donning festive hats, enjoying a few snacks, and indulging in a little bubbly following Rick's moving toast starts the evening off just right!
The girls sat in their little chairs and opened their gifts first. They each had so many packages to open, it took quite a bit of time. After disposing of the first heap of wrapping paper, they helped pass out all the other packages.

How cute are these two little cousins? They were out in the foyer singing and dancing with Santa and managed to take a moment to pose with Munchie.

Brent and I ran two batches of dishes through the dishwasher and handwashed all the stemware and other fragile stuff. Big decisions...to open presents Christmas Eve or wait until Christmas morning. Yeah, we never make it until Christmas morning!

Christmas day we cycled the last batch of dishes through the dishwasher, stuffed the turkey and got da boid into the oven. A short trip over to Brent's mom's place for another gift exchange. Home with enough time to put a wonderful turkey dinner on the table for our parents, mine brither, and neighbors Deb and Loren. It was all great, but could I please sleep in tomorrow?!!

No. I had important morning after Christmas shopping to do. I got up at 6:30, was out the door by 6:45, shopped at Target and Giant, and was back in bed by 8:22...exactly. Up at 10, I had enough time to clean up, set the table yet one more time, and put together a few things for brunch with Matt and Kim. Luckily Kim took care of making a delicious breakfast casserole. A few more gifts, and good heavens, I needed a nap!

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas. No drama. Just lots of time with our family and friends.

2010 Christmas Tree

I think this year our tree is the most beautiful ever. Even though it's an artificial tree we bought a few years ago, each year it looks a little different. It used to only have the beautiful heritage balls my Grandmother made and we used gold tinsel. Some years I used a long ribbon zigzagged back and forth. In recent years I bought pine cone, birds, and gold ornaments from the Germany paviollion at Epcot, Disney World. Last year I bought green, gold leaves and some burgandy

poinsettias to fill in a bit and added a few strands of beads. Gwen and my Mom did a fantastic job hanging all the ornaments and made it just perfect. I love turning on the tree lights and turning out the main lights in the living room. Cuddling up with a nice glass of wine and playing Handel's Messiah. Ahhh, this is Christmas.

Sweet Lights and Chocolate World

Last Monday evening we took Kylie (and Travis) through Hershey's Sweet Lights and then popped into Chocolate World to finish off the evening. Kylie really enjoyed all the lights and wanted Grandma to sit with her in the car at Chocolate Worls.

I love this picture of Travis and Kylie in front of the huge Christmas tree inside the entrance to Chocolate World. We stopped so Kylie could sit on Santa's lap. She was so darn cute!

Several years ago my Dad bought us this singing Santa Claus. He sings several different Christmas carols and the girls absolutely love him. He swings his hips, moves his head and arms and belts out those favorite songs. It's fun to watch the girls singing along with old St. Nick!

Who's this adorable reingdeer? LOL!

We had a fantastic time with Kylie and Travis. Can't wait for Christmas!

Book Club Christmas Party

Each year we have such a good time attending this book club event that includes spouses. Christina invited us all to her home and, with the exception of the meatballs, made all the food herself. It was a grazer's delight! So many interesting and tasty things.

The book this year was The Christmas Bag. I would highly recomment it. It's a very quick read - you can do it in 1-2 hours. It would be a great book for kids around 10 to read too. Great lessons to learn, for all of us.

The Christmas season is upon us!

Six Months

Friday marked the six-month mark since the total knee replacement surgery. Things are coming along. I try to be patient with the evening stiffness and I'm trying to keep up with the exercising. I have two more days of physical therapy next week. I signed up for their wellness program which is much like having a gym membership there but with the advantage of them knowing what I need to do for my knees and how to continue building on where I am today. One of my book club friends has been going to Conforti too and is considering the wellness program. This is great because I'll have someone to workout with.


I was looking way, way back to some of my goals at 2 and 3 months. think most of them, with the exception of the flexion stats have been accomplished. I can stand as long as I need to these days. I'm sleeping in my own bed, although I still wake frequently. That can be attributed as much to heat flashes as my knees.

Everyone says that 6 months is the big turning point. I can't honestly say that I'm seeing a b ig difference, but maybe it's because improvement is so incremental.

My goals today are fairly simple. I need to keep myself going with the exercise program. I'm having trouble keeping everything going (work, home, exercises, you know....life). I need to make sure that I get enough rest. I need to dump some baggage out of my life to focus on the positive things.