Hello 2011

I am writing this on Sunday morning, the eve of our return to work after an entire week off. Lucian's office is closed between Christmas and New Years and for the second year in a row, I took off in between as well. I highly recommend it to everyone:)

I think we both had grand plans of what to do with our week. Lunch outings, movies, catching up on house work, errands and snowboarding. In the end it was a relaxing time spent doing most of those things, minus the snowboarding. We never quite made it. I came down with a flu bug of some sort the day after Christmas wiping me out for a a full day. Claire was really fussy for a number of days too, cutting at least 5 teeth including molars. This made outings difficult the first couple of days of our break.

You can see some of her teeth in this photo. She loves to run around in the morning in just a diaper. Tears are often shed when I try to get her dressed.

Claire using one of her new dishes at meal time. She is finally to a point where she doesn't dump them and throw the dishes. She is growing up:)

Claire loves to explore the house and play with household items. They are so much better than toys you know. One of her favorites is a cupboard in the bathroom with feminine products. I can't tell you how many times a day these are scattered on the floor.

Claire grooming her horsey. Tatum is becoming more tolerant of the little one. What choice does he have really?

Climbing on the dog bed

Lucian purchased a bike frame a few weeks ago and has been ordering parts. He and a buddy built the bike one day last week. It will be his winter commuter and perhaps be entered in a cyclocross race sometime. It's what road bikers do in the off season I hear.


I met my sister and a friend out for lunch one afternoon. We all lunched with Lucian's family at his favorite Vietnamese restaurant. Lucian and I each took Spencer to a movie on different nights. We chose The Fighter and the boys saw True Grit.

We cooked a fabulous meal for New Years Eve; lobster tails and grilled meat of our choice. Lucian went for a ribeye, Spen a chicken breast and a tenderloin fillet for myself. This morning Lucian is whipping up lobster eggs benedict to use up our leftovers.



We spent the evening at home cooking our meal and watching tv. Not all that glamorous, but cozy and enjoyable. Spencer jetted off to a party at a friends house after dinner. I actually set an alarm to get up after midnight and go pick him up. With a dog that often gets up in the middle of the night and Claire up and at 'em at 6am, I wasn't able to make it til midnight. I also squeezed in a few essential naps over this break. I will miss those next week.


We had a lot of great memories in 2010. We wish everyone a happy healthy 2011!