Updates, updates, updates

Let's play catch-up, shall we? It's a really fun game in which I write down all the stuff I've been doing so that I remember it in ten years. You can read it if you want. Or, you can look at this random picture of my kids.

So much of our daily life is explained in this one simple picture. (Sigh.)

Now, for the updates:

We ate Thanksgiving dinner alone at a nice-ish buffet at Longwood Gardens. It was meh. A few days later, we had Thanksgiving Do Over that I cooked myself. It was much better. I highly recommend doing over holidays that aren't quite right.

A week after Thanksgiving, we flew out to Utah for a quick holiday visit and had a great, fun-filled, exhausting time. Here's a shot of my family party. Believe it or not, there are several family members not in the photo.

Then, that night, we had Ryan's family party. Jesse and his band, Herod the Fink, performed and rocked the house with their awesome Christmas tunes. (Have you bought the CD yet?)

We came home to Lucy, who yipped and pawed at my leg for 45 entire minutes and made me promise to never, ever leave her again.

Another update: I've been keeping (somewhat) busy with freelance work, thanks to a couple of great ad agencies in town who have been funneling work my way. My new motto is, "No project is too small!" However, I'm starting a big new project this week and, hopefully, an even bigger project in January. Thanks again for all the well-wishing and networking, my friends.

And yet another update: Last week, I pulled out my withering, neglected novel-in-progress. Even though it's a computer document, a giant puff of dust shot out of my computer screen when I opened it. I cringed, but I pushed up my sleeves and started writing again. It felt good.

Guess what? Another update: Ryan spent a few days last week in DC working on a very exciting project. I can't give you all the details, but he is now one degree of separation from President Obama, which means he is only TWO DEGREES OF SEPARATION FROM OPRAH! He doesn't like to admit it, but he's sort of a big deal.

Would you like one more update? Christian tried out and made his middle school basketball team last week. Yahoo! Later today I plan to purchase a season's worth of non-toxic, non-comedogenic paint (in school colors, of course) to paint my face and belly for all of the home games. You know, because I'm a cool mom.

We're all caught up now. Have a wonderful Monday.