Happy New Year!

Happy 2011! I hope you all had a great time ringing in the new year with friends and family!

We had a really fun night celebrating with my siblings and their significant others (minus Kelly who went to a wedding - we sure missed her!). Me, Dave, Curtis, Daché, Erin and Zach headed to downtown Denver to spend some quality time together and ring in the New Year!

We started out by having dinner at P.F. Chang - which turns out to be a favorite for all of us! We enjoyed being able to chat and to get to know one another better.

After dinner we headed to the Cheesecake Factory to pick up some yummy cheesecake to take home. We then headed outside to catch the 9:00 downtown fireworks in the -5 degree cold. Yes, -5 degrees. It was COLD! But worth it for the fireworks! I tried to take a few pictures of the fireworks but since it was so cold my hands were shaking and the pictures aren’t that great. Sorry!

After the trek to the Light rail station and the ride home we got into our pajamas and watched Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve until after midnight. Did you see New Kids On The Block perform? Ah! It brought back so many memories! It was definitely my favorite performance of the night. My family thinks I’m crazy since I sang along with all of the words, but that’s ok with me.

We rang in 2011 with champagne and sparkling white grape juice and festive party hats and leis and noisemakers. Some people fell asleep before midnight... eh hem, Curt and Daché… but that’s ok, we forgive them because they live in Texas.

I hope you had a great New Year’s Eve and I hope that God blesses you all in 2011. Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas Eve Day!

To continue on the video theme...

This may be one of the cutest and most creative things I've seen retelling the Christmas Story. So on this Christmas Eve day enjoy this video and remember why we are celebrating this week. Merry Christmas!

Digital Christmas

I saw this fun video on You Tube telling the Christmas Story in a fun and social 21st century way. Enjoy!

Try

Today's #reverb10 prompt: Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn't go for it?

I've always wanted to try being a DJ and spinning and mixing music. Unfortunately I know absolutely nothing about it, the equipment to try it out is expensive, and the opportunity to learn from someone else has never presented itself. The best I can do for now is play DJ Hero 2 on Xbox. So come on over and see if you can beat me at pushing buttons and turning knobs on a plastic turntable.  Ha!

Appreciate

Today's #reverb10 prompt: Appreciate. What's the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?

I truly appreciate having a job and all of the things it affords me - a roof over my head, food on the table, clothes on my back, a car to get me where I need to go, and the list goes on and on.

Every day through my job I see people who have nothing. No job, no home, no health care, no food, no support and nowhere to turn. These people are so desperate for someone to just listen to them and try to help them. I see people who were hard-working and successful but were then laid off over a year ago and have still not found work - and they want to work. The have lost unemployment benefits and the lifestyle they used to live. They are now sleeping on couches at friends and family's houses or sleeping in shelters or in parks. They are having to utilize the food bank and local missions who provide meals. They may be in pain due to a medical issue that they can no longer afford (or can't afford insurance) to treat.

Every day I am grateful I don't have to go through the things our clients go through.

I am grateful for a job, and even more so, a job that allows me to help other people. We may not have much, but praise God because we have what we need and even a little extra. Unfortunately, not everyone can say that.