I know this is a bit belated, but I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and a safe and fun New Year’s Eve. Kanan got a good taste of what the holidays are like in our family and that is busy. We first celebrated Christmas Eve with the Colombian side of my family. We went to my grandmother and grandfather’s house and Kanan got to play with his stuffed dog that barks and snores as well as his plastic Spider man ball. He had a great time being the center of attention and the life of the party as we all sat around talking politics (we all agree on that thank God!) and watching Kanan play and talk and laugh. He even clapped for everybody, which is a skill he loves to show off.

Christmas day, we went to my dad’s house for the Matzke Christmas and Kanan got to play with all of his cousins and third cousins. He got spoiled  with clothes and gift certificates. And we got pretty spoiled as well. Thanks everyone for all the thoughtful presents!

Then the next day, we packed up our car and drove 3 hours to Santa Barbara to spend Christmas with Mike’s family–The Webbs. Kanan got to meet his Uncle Chris whom he is named after, although we all like to call Chris “Cdogg.” Cdogg bought Kanan a bunch of great outfits including a sweet sesame street running suit and Etnie shoes with red and black skulls on them. His grandparents bought him lots of gifts as well including a back pack for our yearly trips to the Webb Cabin in the summers.  We are truly blessed to have so many thoughtful and generous family and friends this Christmas season. If Kanan could speak, I’m sure he would be saying thank you a thousand times. After Christmas, we refused to go back home and instead enjoy Santa Barbara for a few days.  Kanan got to meet more relatives including his Great Uncle Ian, Great Aunt Louise, 2nd cousin Patty and her two children. We all went to the Zoo too. Kanan loved the lions, giraffes, and monkeys.

New Years Eve eve was spent back home shopping at Target using some our gift certificates, and then accidentally leaving three gift-cards at the register at Target only to have them stolen by some customers two people behind us in line. They spent the gift-cards before we had a chance to cancel them. Unfortunately, the corporate offices for the stores the gift certificates went to were closed, so we really couldn’t get any help. That was, of course, my fault. I was very distracted and rushed when we were in line and so I spent a few hours crying that day because of how bad I felt to have lost such thoughtful and expensive gifts from my Mother. But my mother has forgiven me and we are moving on. On the bright side,  the loss of the gift certificates happened in 2007. Had I lost them today, I would have felt even worse for having started of the new year badly. This just makes the outlook for 2008 even more hopeful. I am definitely feeling rejuvenated by it.

New Years Eve evening we met our friends Lisa and Jeremy and their son Nolan half way in Irvine and had a laid back dinner at Islands. We came home and put Kanan to bed and drank some champagne and talked, but fell asleep before midnight hit. It was a relaxing evening and we were actually happy that we didn’t do anything big this year. It felt good to not have to stand in lines, spend ridiculous amounts of money, or stay up till the crack of dawn.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the holidays as much as we did. And I hope you are as excited about 2008 as I am. At church on Sunday, the guest pastor talked about goal setting and how Paul viewed it in respect to Christianity. Afterward we got to think about the changes we wanted to make for the new year. These changes included bad habits we wanted to give up, things we wanted to accomplish in our personal life or career, and finally, goals we wanted to accomplish spiritually. Here is what I came up with:

Bad habits to stop:
1. stop waisting time reading gossip articles on yahoo

2. worrying so much

Things I would like to accomplish this year:

1. earn that final unit of college credit this summer to move me up the pay scale.

2. eat healthier

3. start jogging with Mike

Spiritual goals for the year:
1. Go to church every Sunday (90% of the time)

2. Start reading the bible (maybe cover to cover for the first time?)

You may have noticed there is nothing on here about improving my motherhood or my teaching. Well that is because my life is so imbalanced, those are the only two things that take the majority of my life. I feel guilty for not being as good of a teacher as I want to be because my son takes up so much of my time. And then I feel guilty for not being home with Kanan because my job takes so much of my time. I want to spend so much time with Kanan when I get home, I’ve put off the gym and cooking decent meals for myself or Mike. So my goals this year involve rounding my self back out (personality wise 😉 ).