New Year!!!

Happy New Year everyone!!! It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but we're back in business. We've had Christmas, New Years, various illnesses, and no phone service, but the biggest thing for us this year is that we finally moved in to our new place!! We'll miss the little old house - I can't believe we were there for 8 years! But we had definitely outgrown it - about two years ago actually, when Jack was born. It served us well (and was incredibly cheap), but it was time to move on.

To some, our new place might not seem like a huge change - it's only got one more room, but to us, it's like a palace! It also has many wonderful extras such as a great view of Griffith Park, a playground for the kids, a dishwasher (Em's favorite thing I think), a gym, and a swimming pool (!!!). But the best thing is that we're no longer sleeping in our living room!! As Dan sang when he came over last night - we're movin' on up!! We're all very happy here, but it's still a mess, so I'll post pictures when things are presentable.

In the meantime, back to Christmas.

After frantically shopping (see earlier blog), it was so nice to finally get to Mom & Petur's house for their traditional Christmas Eve party. They had a smaller party than usual this year, but it was a great group of friends and family including both sisters, Jamie and Felix (first Christmas!!), Em's mom Panna and her husband Larry, and Dad and Molly who made a wild journey down from Oregon (an epic story in itself).

We had a great dinner and did the traditional tree lighting & singing. It may not have been as big as previous parties, but it felt very special and intimate. I especially liked when mom's friend Gila sang the tradtional Chanukka song for lighting the Menorah. It's always such a perfect way to begin Christmas!