Happy New Year!

2009 came in for us, not with a bang, but a whisper. But it was good. We didn't make it til midnight to see the New Year come in, but that's okay. I went to bed with Annah, Austin layed with Jonathan until he fell asleep watching Star Wars (then stayed up half the night playing the Wii!), and Matthew stayed up playing his PSP.

On New Years Day, we went to my mom's house for our traditional New Years Day lunch, consisting of blackeye peas, hog jowl, greens (yeah, I didn't eat any...no wonder I never have any money!), rice, and cubed steak in gravy, along with cornbread. Afterwards, we played outside - despite the freezing temperatures - with the boxes of "poppers" that Mom found stashed away. We had an all-out war throwing them at each other, and even Annah got in on the fun without being afraid. Afterwards, we played on the "Monkey Swing" that's been a fixture in my Mom's yeard since I was a small girl (the seat has been changed many times....the rope never has, to my knowledge anyway). We also had a grand time throwing leaves at each other. Somehow Matthew ended up with a ton of them down his pants, and had to wind up going into the bushes and taking his pants off to get them out....all the while giving Austin the opportunity to stuff even more leaves into Matthew's jacket!







All in all, it was a good start to the year. Look out 2009....here we come!