Finishing out a Year and a Decade

What a ride!

2009 has come and gone and the first decade of the 21st Century ends tonight. Wow!

I've been reflecting on the past 10 years. A lot has happened and it has really been kind of neat to think about it. When I look back perhaps the best is the arrival of Aiden so you can imagine how I'm looking forward to starting this new decade with the arrival of a Granddaughter next month.

Over the next couple of days maybe I'll post about some of the other things. I'm starting to keep a list because I really want to remember.

I've also started my running up again. I'd kind of gotten out of the habit. It feels good to get back on the roads and I'll get on the trails again soon enough. I'm going to figure out some goals for the year and look forward to perhaps doing the "pig." We'll see.

Christmas 2009

I love this picture like so many others I've taken of Aiden, he's really a photogenic little person who seems to express pure joy with just a smile. This year he really enjoyed Christmas. Santa (his Uncle Colin) managed to surprise him in the living room when he came home from Grammy Jean's house on Christmas Eve. Then, Santa visited again on Christmas morning. Aiden was a very busy guy opening numerous gifts from friends and family; some were toys but most were educational in some fashion or other. He especially liked Papaw's train (Thomas!).

I worked on Christmas Day and it was uneventful. I didn't get to enjoy Christmas morning but Matt and Ciara made a video that I'll get to watch. Christmas evening the adults opened their presents and Matt finally got the gift I'd been taunting him with (a "fire piston"). Aiden and Colin gave Linda and I a GPS for the car; a gift that Linda is sure to enjoy!

Saturday evening we had an "open house" type dinner party with a few neighbors and lots and lots of food and drink. It too turned out well.

Overall the whole week was a lot of fun and we managed to get some things done in the house and kitchen with Matt's help. New lighting and mounting of the flat screen TV over the fireplace. We even managed to get Aiden out to the "Festival of Lights."
I really like this family picture of Matt, Ciara and Aiden.

Let's Try to Get Up to Speed

Many events have occurred in the past 60 days so let's see if we can make note:

Ciara and Linda put a baby shower together for Rieko and Ian the first week of November. It was the first time since last June that the entire family had gotten together and we took a few pictures. The two posted above were the best ones. I can't resist posting pictures of Aiden and the most recent one of the little devil is great.

Thanksgiving was spent in Charlotte with Matt's family. He had is brother John and wife Kelly and their 3 children; Uncle Jim and Aunt Sandy with 4 of their children; Uncle Joe and his two children as well as Linda and I. Neighbors Vicki, Wade and Madison joined in for the fun. I'd like to say the weather was nice but, sad to say, it was pretty ugly most of the time although Thanksgiving day was nice. Frozen tag was the game of the day by most of the kids (and some of the more adventurous "older" kids....Matt, Wade and John). It was a lot of fun seeing how close everyone is despite only getting together at Thanksgiving for an early Christmas celebration. Linda and I really enjoyed ourselves.

The following week was spent working in the house. Linda and I plastered and painted, moved kitchen cabinets and rearranged the furniture many many times. I think we've finally figured things out and we're pretty happy with the result. We hope to be ready for installation of our hardwood floors come the first part of 2010.

That sounds strange: 2010. The first decade of the 2000s is almost gone and we're about to start the second, WOW!