Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009! We've had quite a year, so we have high hopes for this year being a big improvement. New Year's Eve was pretty anticlimactic. Jalal had to work. I went to bed around 10:30, Jalal called at 11:20 and said he was coming home. I fell back asleep until he got home, and he walked in at about 15 seconds til midnight! We counted down, kissed, then I went back to sleep. Oh well, not the worst new year's we've shared.
Christmas was quite an experience. Trish and Wade got here Christmas Eve, and Mom even flew in for the weekend, but she couldn't come until the day after Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas Day. Quinn's face when he saw his rocking chair was priceless. He loves it, and Jalal and I can't believe we kept it a secret for so long. I think he was a bit overwhelmed by all the toys, but he's slowly taking each one in its turn. Stockings were so stuffed that they couldn't be hung up! And I personally got some fantastic gifts, including sterling silver hoop earrings, a cool knit hat, gloves, and scarf set, and a Wii Fit Balance Board! That was a huge surprise and Jalal and I are having so much fun with it. I made a 24-hour omelet for breakfast, which was great because I put it together the day before and only had to pop it in the oven that morning. Jalal made our traditional Christmas dinner, lamb. That night, we went to Hollywild for the holiday lights festival. It was crazy. They have a deer forest, which basically turned into a redneck demolition derby with people chasing down deer with bags of bread. We never did get a deer to come up to us. We did, however, get to feed a couple of zebras and a zonkey (I'm not making that up: it's a hybrid of a zebra and a donkey). Quinn had a close encounter with a camel when he smelled the Melba toast Quinn was eating.
Trish and Wade left on Saturday, and Mom, Jalal, and I took Quinn to a playground for a while. We all had a good time and got some great pictures. On Sunday, we went over to Atlanta to the Georgia Acquarium. Quinn loves the fish. He even says "fish." I'm so glad we got annual passes. It is such a short ride (would be shorter if we didn't always go on football game days!), and we've already paid for them.
The next day, we went to breakfast, but Mom wasn't feeling too well. I took her to the airport just after noon, and she had to get out of the check-in line to be sick. We finally made it up to security and said goodbye. Well, long story short, she was supposed to leave at 2:00 p.m. and her flight didn't end up leaving until after 1:00 a.m.! What an ordeal. I couldn't even do anything to help her because she couldn't leave the airport, and we wouldn't have been able to go through security. I know she was glad to finally be home though. Well, I have a lot of stuff to do today, including dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, working out (very important), and working on an edit. I won't say it's a resolution, but I will try to write more often this year. Hope you all have a wonderful new year and a blessed 2009. Love, Us.