Yesterday A Moment Later: Last day of the year

So here it is, the last day of the year.
The last day of the year kinda stresses me out- I know, a lot of things stress me out. But it's just such a glaring reminder of all the things I didn't get done. I always go back and look at the goals I made for the year (since I've got my notebook out getting ready to make new ones) and it's hard not to feel like a lame-o when over half of them never happened, but whatever, I love making New Year's Resolutions, so luckily the last day of the year is followed by the first day of the year, which I thoroughly enjoy. I love starting over. Granted, I get that I can do that anytime I want to, but it's just extra nice that day.
I've never put my resolutions in such a public place, for fear of mockery and failure, but I'm resolving to not fear mockery and failure :) so here we go:

2009
1- learn to play the harmonica
2- garden in my backyard- grow at least 3 things I can eat
3- leave work by 7:00 every night and work from home one day a week
4- read more ("more" meaning at least 5 books, which, compared to the 2 I read this year, is indeed more. embarrassing.)
5- meditate

I was gonna write more about each of these, but now it's five days later (Happy New Year!) and I suppose I'll just get on with it. But first, some pictures, totally unrelated to New Year's Festivities and/or the name of this post.

So I know in my last post I made a big to-do about working like crazy and not getting to do anything fun for the holiday season. Well that was mostly true. I did get to do a few fun things, just not nearly enough.

Fun Thing #One- The 4th Annual Cookie Party
The cookie party is one of my favorite traditions. It's all about who can create the most fabulous pile of sugar, and there was some tough competition this year as you can see. Some went for quantity over quality:

Jeremy went with a beach theme- turned Santa's sleigh into a seal (I love the fin), the new star into a starfish, and a Christmas light bulb into Flounder.

Kash went for pure height

But as usual, the Bates sisters took the cake, or the cookie. . .

and Shawn cleaned up after everyone :)

(turns out I didn't take many pictures cause my hands are just sticky the whole night.

Fun Thing #Two- Caroling
On the eve of Christmas Eve, Abby got a whole bunch of people together, mainly the youth from church, and we went to the Institute on Aging, a day facility for seniors with Alzheimers. It was such a great time. We sang, played instruments, and brought treats.

Thomas's opera pieces were of course a big hit. There was one adorable man there that was especially impressed- gave him a standing ovation and told him he could get lots of ladies with a voice like that!

Fun Thing #Three- Christmas!

I love that picture! I just think Maddie looks so cute!! And while I do think to a stranger the image does in fact look like Pure Christmas Joy, this pose is actually just one in a series of expressions she goes through when you ask her to smile. It is seriously the funniest thing. Alicia and James have no idea why Maddie thinks this is what a smile looks like, but when you say the word, this is what she does: Goes from being her adorable self, to a scary and borderline-ugly rabbit child.