thanks for the memories

So long, two-thousand-aughts. You've been good to us. M and I realized that the past decade has been pretty amazing. We met in 2000. I graduated from college in 2001. He got his masters in 2002 and tried out life in Oklahoma. We moved to Lexington in 2003. We got married in 2004. We bought a house and got Otis in 2005. 2006 was pretty lowkey except for the whole getting pregnant thing. S was born in 2007, and M's dad joined us in Lexington. We moved back to Tennessee in 2008. And by 2009, we were finally settling in to our lives exactly as we wanted. Things are calm. We are very blessed, and we appreciate those blessings every single day.

Enough of that, though. I know you just want to know about Christmas. S had a blast, and she is loving all of her presents. To those of you who sent her things, thank you. You'll be getting notes as soon as I can find the cards! Until then, know that your gifts are loved.

So, Christmas Day. The first thing S did was check to see if Santa had eaten his cookies...and if he'd fed his reindeer with the food she left for them. Then she hit the gifts. She opened the Disney Princess Doll Collection first, and those suckers are a big hit around here. She opened all of her presents in between stripping the princess dolls. After gifts, we got dressed and went to Mellie's for breakfast where S got her Super S cape, which is super friggin' cute. Then we went to visit Mr. P and give him the gifts Santa left for him. Then home for showers. Then off to Columbia where we spent the entire day playing games and eating and enjoying being with family.

As for gifts, I've already mentioned most of S's. M got a GPS because he doesn't get enough of maps in his day-to-day existence. I also got him a wicked awesome SmartWool sweater, but it's too small. The man has seriously long arms. And he got some new SmartWool socks. As for me, I got books. Lots of books. My new titles: The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America; The Gentle Art of Domesticity; Slow Food Nation; Mere Christianity; A Short History of Nearly Everything;Guns, Germs, and Steel; Organic Gardening Down South; Her Fearful Symmetry; The Bread Bible; and The Art of the Commonplace. Of course, those are just the books that Santa brought. My sisters gave me a chocolate chip cookbook, and I must say that the layered mocha mousse that I made yesterday proves that it's a very promising book indeed.

It was a great Christmas. S helped us de-Christmafy the house, and she said goodnight to all of the nutcrackers as they were wrapped up for their long naps until next year. Then she got upset because I put away her Christmas books. Then she remembered that she got oodles of new books, and life is good once more.

Now the Ouisers are back to our normal Ouiser selves. Cooking. Reading. Playing. Organizing. Laughing. Loving our lives.