And we're back

Happy New Year, one and all!  I hope you enjoyed a pleasant week of celebrations and fun with friends and family.  No doubt my darkened blog put a damper on your joy, but now we're together again, and I know you're all eager for another year of my aimless (though delightfully written) blog posts and gratuitous beefcake pictures. 

[This begs the question: Is there really such a thing as a "gratuitous" beefcake picture?]

Darren, Hudson, and I had a very pleasant Christmas.  Hudson spent a good portion of the holiday week vacationing with his friends at Woof Dah while his dads visited friends and family, ate and drank too much, and generally had a great week.

My family's Christmas gathering was somewhat compromised by a near-blizzard that kept my dad and his S.O. from joining the rest of us at my youngest sister's home.  That was very disappointing, but we were still able to have a fun day together.  We opened presents, ate like little piggies, and played Wii games with my nephews. 

Here I'm nervously watching my wine glass as Gavin (in red) and Ian pass out the gifts.

On Christmas Eve morning, we drove down to La Crosse, Wisconsin to spend a few days with Darren's family.  I brought along my coolest Christmas present, a TomTom portable GPS unit that Darren gave me.  (So far I've only used it to tell me how to get places I already know how to find, but one of these days, I'll go someplace tricky, and I'll be completely prepared.)

That evening the family (minus Darren's younger sister and her husband, who live in Florida) ate a tasty dinner with much lefse, and then we opened gifts. 

Here's Darren's nephew, Max, adorned in a style more befitting his uncle WG than a rough and tumble Wisconsin boy.

Darren's older sister has taken in a foster child, and he's a real sweetie.  He used me as a jungle gym for much of the evening.  This picture shows him in rare motionless moment.

I'm craning my neck uncomfortably to watch Darren and Max playing with one of my other cool presents, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga for Wii.  The low-fi pic below shows LEGO Princess Leia doing something daring.

Darren's parents have lived in a one-bedroom apartment for the past few years (long story, but nothing grim or seedy), so when we visit them, we usually sleep on their living room floor atop an air mattress that we bring from our home (along with our bedding and pillows).  It's not awful, but it's also far from the height of luxury.  The accommodations are also a bit lacking in privacy.

Fortunately, an inexpensive new hotel has recently opened just a mile down the road, so we decided to spend two nights there.  It was clean but very basic.  Still, we enjoyed having our own bathroom and not having to worry about deflating our bed each morning so people could use the living room.

Here's the breathtaking view from our window.

We came back to the Twin Cities on Wednesday afternoon to find we had just missed a big snowstorm.  The new snow was beautiful, but we were very glad that we didn't have to drive in it.

There was no raucous New Year's Eve for us last night.  Darren and I both had the day off from work, so we did some shopping, and played video games.  I also napped and did some reading.  We had a quiet evening at home with Hudson, and we didn't even notice when midnight arrived, because we were busy destroying the Death Star until nearly 2:00.  Today we're staying in and making ourselves a nice roasted turkey dinner. 

This morning I must face the dreaded task of taking down the Christmas tree, one of my least favorite chores.  The living room always feels so empty when it's gone.

Well look at me, just rambling on.  You all scurry off and put together your New Years resolutions, if you do such things.

More tomorrow,

~WG

Comments

[Amy]

Happy New Year!

Holy cow--I think *I* want to stay at Woofdah.

[Tom]

Happy New Year to you and yours. Love your blog and your sense of humor. Hope that your 2008 is joyful.

[doug]

Happy New Year WG and thanks for being part of my morning routine....