December 31, 2005

Well, the last day of 2005. It's been a good year, in retrospect. It's nice to take a minute and reflect.
We have had a nice, relaxing holiday week. The week of Christmas, Gene and I saw Jim Brickman in concert. It was fabulous. He is an amazing pianist....and he had friends come along and sing some great tunes...Including kermit the frog (via satelite) sing "Why are there so many songs about Rainbows?" Fantastic time. We saw it in the newly restored Tennessee Theatre downtown. It was the first time I'd been....Gene used to go there as a teenager to see movies after it had been a rundown theater. We had dinner out and it was nice to relax before the "Santa panic"began. I never think I have enough, or the right stuff for people. It requires too much planning and I so like the last minute throw together idea.
We decided since I was singing at church Sunday morning and we all had to be there by 9:30, that we'd have Santa come a day early...so, we spent all day Saturday unwrapping gifts, playing games and puzzles, etc. Tara let me know everything was a ok....when she said "wow, this is the best day ever. Isn't this my lucky day?" Sunday ended up being a nice quiet day. I had a bad cold Saturday, but was able to pull off my duet at 10am...yeah. I didn't realize it had been so long since I have sung in public. People that I know really well were saying "oh, I had no idea you sang so well." Guess I've been doing other things for the past few years.
Emily begins her first week in primary as a sunbeam tomorrow. She had a little graduation from nursery and is very excited to now be in her own class and not "with the babies".
She made me laugh the other day when we sat down to play with her tea set, when I started to drink, she insisted on having a prayer first and then it was too hot for about 20 minutes. So, we had interesting conversations about the weather for awhile. We still have not yet had snow this year. Amazing, eh?
Tara is reading alot. She just got her own nail polish and she surprised me by doing it by herself. I about had a coronary in my chair trying to just watch her and not help....it was an open bottle on nail polish for goodness sakes!!! But, she did great. She is reading like a pro and loves to write and read words everywhere. We had a different friend over every day this week for her...next week she'll go visit others. She has to keep her social calendar full. She is a delight to have around and is a great big sister she plays barbies with Emily and trucks with Jake.
Jacob will not sit still. One minute he will be running around with a plane or car, jumping up and down and the next minute he will be out cold on the floor (for a nap)....he's full speed or stopped.
It's amazing to watch him. He loves singing Jingle bells and holding his "RUFF" stuffed puppy.
Gene is putting in alot of hours at work. There are alot of changes happening their company was bought by First American and merged with another co....so, their name is now MLS imaging. instead of Marketlinx. Management has changed too. He just took the girls to ride their new bikes in the church gym. There were also 7 moves to help with this week (talk about a transitional ward). He only had Monday off after Christmas, so, it has been a week of no Dad.
We made one batch of Christmas cookies (way too much hassle), gave those away and made a basic chocolate chip cookie for Santa. (Emily was quite disturbed that we didn't make gingerbread for him) He still brought her what she asked for and I told her it was because he liked the hot cocoa the best.
I finally dropped my statistics class, I'll pick it up once all the kids are in school. In the meantime I began my next class on budgeting and financing. I'll see how that one goes. Best wishes to you all to enjoy the beginnings of the new year. Keep Christmas in your heart. We love you! Angelina, Gene, Tara, Emily and Jake Borden