Happy New Year! I can't believe another year is over. 2008 really flew by. So much happened this past year for us. It was a very good year! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to post a year-ender photo album. I had a lot of fun with that last year. (Thanks RB and LK for the idea!) 
This is a cute ornament we got for Jenny this year. Since we got one for the 4 of us, we didn't want her to feel left out. She had some assistance hanging it on the tree.
This is the outside of the house. I only put up a couple of wreaths this year for decorations outside. Next year, maybe I'll get daring and throw up some lights. The snow was a natural occurrence, not a decoration from me... (Hey, I used "occurrence" in a sentence and I even spelled it right!)
This is my favorite Nutcracker guy. Standing tall overseeing the festivities. Well, at this point he's just waiting for them to begin. He's been waiting for awhile now!
Since we don't have a chimney, fireplace or mantle... this seemed like a fun place to put all the stockings. Kelsey's stocking is the gigantic one with the green top. Alex has the next biggest one on the far left. Eric and I have the "small" ones in the middle. And no, the giant stockings do not get filled all the way. Just because there's more room, doesn't necessarily mean they get more stuff!
I have no idea where this little snowman came from. But he's sweet and I like his big red heart. He's in the dining room with the red candles and centerpiece.
And this is my new favorite Santa. I got him at a 90% off sale last year at Jo-Ann Fabrics after Christmas. I think it was under $2. I had forgotten I got him until I opened the boxes of decorations this year.
Eric's company Christmas Party was last evening. It was at Coleman's Irish Pub. The food was wonderful and everyone got a free drink coupon. If you dared to do Karaoke, you would have received another. Not many folks lined up for that, but there was a very humorous performance of Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." 
Eric tried to enter Coleman's through the Leprechaun door.
Eric and I. With Eric being silly, as usual.
Our table-mates, Dave and Rae. Dave works with Eric. And I used to work with Rae over at Channel 5. (She's now at Ch. 3.) Small world.
There were many items raffled off by Bob, the President. Prizes varying from show tickets, restaurant gift certificates, mystery packages... 
... and this baking set, complete with hot pads, kitchen towels, oatmeal cookie mix and a Moose cookie cutter. Of which I was the lucky winner. I think I'll be baking some oatmeal cookies soon. 
Eric and I went to MariRae's house last night for her almost-annual Creative Media Soiree. Eric worked for MariRae years ago and they still remain friends. MariRae is a real estate agent now and helped us this summer when we sold our townhouses and bought our new home.
Alex and Eric had a Wii Boxing match last night. Eric had never played before, but he got into it pretty quickly.
And he was very excited that he won that round!
Although, in the end it was best 2 out of 3... and Alex won two rounds, Eric won one. So Alex was the champion in the end. (And that does say K-O on the TV screen, not backwards K-O... it was in the process of flipping around when I snapped the photo.) For the record, I played a match earlier and won 2 out of 3 against "The Champ". But sadly, there is no photographic proof. 
Here is the "before" image. This was taken about a week or two after we moved in, before we painted. I think the difference is very dramatic, and the only differences are the wall color, the countertops and the sink. It's like a whole new kitchen!
We had a fun-filled family decorating night last night when we decorated our giant tree. We listened to Christmas music and took turns climbing the ladder to reach the higher branches
Surprisingly, between the two of us, we had more than enough decorations for the 9' tree.
Green-eyed Jenny and the beautiful tree. She's not sure what to make of the new tree, but seems to be ignoring it for the most part. We're hoping we don't come home some day and find the tree on top of her.
Normally I don't really comment on news and current events much, but this needs a mention. So, where you were for the first verdict 13 years ago? I was in Lexington, KY. Standing in the tape room of the TV station where I was working. There were a few of us in the room watching a small tv on the wall. We all just stood there, stunned when he was found not-guilty. Well, what goes around, comes around. Catch you later, OJ! 
I admit it, I consider myself a Christmas Tree light snob. I only like white lights on my tree. I don't know why or where it started. I just think they look nice, maybe even a little classy. Not that there's anything wrong with the multi-colored lights, they just aren't my thing. Well, after much debating, well a little bit of debating and a lot of giving in on my part, I am allowing multi-colored lights on our tree this year. I still think that 9' tree would look amazing with white lights, red beaded garland and my cute red bows scattered about the many branches. But this year we're going to have the multi-colored lights and lots of silver beaded garland adorn our tree. We put the lights up last night and are planning to decorate the tree tomorrow night. I'll be sure to take lots of photos. And who knows, maybe I will change my mind about the multi-colored lights once it's complete.
This is where we decided to put the tree. It's not decorated yet, we'll do that this weekend. We still need to add lights too.
We also got a personalized ornament to go on our first tree in the new house. It'll be the first ornament to go on the giant tree. I think we're gearing up for a fun, old fashioned Griswold... errr... Hayden Family Christmas!
Today was a fun day, even though it was the day I turned 40. It was all about the food. And tomorrow I will need to start my diet. 
This was our chef at the Steakhouse. I ordered Chicken Teriyaki, Alex had Beef Teriyaki, Kelsey had Grilled Chicken... and Eric had some sort of chicken thing off the menu... we started the meal with soup, then a salad... then fried rice... sauteed zucchini with onions... fried shrimp.... and then the main course of our chosen meat sauteed with mushrooms... then it was all topped off with bean sprouts. Phew! 
This was a shot of our meal in flames.
Then we got home and Eric surprised me with this fun cake! (The close-up photo is above.) We are are saving it for later though because we are all too full!! So far 40 has been a blast. But I'm thinking I might need to get some sort of exercise equipment if I'm going to keep eating like this!
More photos from the Lake Effect snow. This is the tree in front of our house yesterday morning. I'm thinking we're going to have a very white Thanksgiving this year.
I managed to make it home safely from a very rough evening commute. An hour and a half to go 15 miles. Good times. I had a beer and some leftover pizza for dinner and now I'm finally sitting down to relax. This weeks Five on Friday are my favorite TV Theme songs. These were my favorites growing up, since they really don't seem to make catchy, fun theme songs anymore. I would like to apologize in advance for planting these songs in your brain, and if any of these get stuck in your head, I am soo sorry!
This was my view on the drive to work today. (Yes, I took this as I was driving... probably not the smartest thing to be doing!) But it was neat. It was dark and snowing to the right of the lake and sunny to the left. That's what Lake Effect is like. A few miles away could be having a blizzard while you're in total sunshine. 
I took this photo from the parking lot at work, minutes after I took the above photo. The skies were clear and blue. What a difference a couple of miles makes!
A peaceful, pretty shot of winter. (Click on the images to see them bigger.)
