Happy New Year!

So our Disney trip was absolutely amazing. We had the best time and spared no cost for whatever Caroline wanted. In my opinion, that's the best way to go. I don't want to go every single year and have to do it on a budget. I'd rather save up, go every 4-5 years, and blow it out doing whatever we want. It was so much fun not having to restrict ourselves because of money. Makes me wish I was a millionaire. :-) So anyway, the trip home was way too eventful for me. Caroline threw up in the car (so gross), we had a blowout back rear tire which left us roadside for about 45 minutes. Then in the process of Robert trying to assess our spare tire situation, he accidentally pulled Caroline's enormous Magic Kingdom princess balloon out of the car. We could've saved it because of the weights on the bottom if a car traveling 75 MPH hadn't run over it in the middle of the road, splitting it's ribbon and sending the balloon into the trees. Nice. Caroline was such a sweet girl and didn't cry or fuss. She just said "why are we leaving my balloon??" when we finally drove away. Her sweet Aunt Lisa had a huge princess castle balloon waiting for her when we got home, so she was happy about that. So after a 2 hour delay from the tire incident, we finally arrived home late that night. Never been so happy to see my front door. The next day was Christmas Eve. Ugh. We had a great day, but it was just sad for me. I went to visit my Papaw by myself that afternoon. Took a blanket and just sat with him for a little while. Not that he's there, but I just feel like I'm "with" him when I'm there. I guess it's as close to his body as I'll ever get again. I know that sounds weird and kinda morbid. I just feel closer to him there. So after a short visit, we did our Christmas Eve thing with Robert's family. Scott was home so it was nice to see him. Caroline got so many wonderful gifts from everyone, including Santa. She got all the things she had asked for, plus a few surprises. She's the most grateful little thing on Christmas morning. She goes and hugs whoever gave her the gift and says "thank you" with the sweetest little look on her face. Which is saying a lot for her because she's so shy most of the time. Then a few days after Christmas my family from Oklahoma/Texas came to visit. We got to meet my cousin Tyler's baby girl, Georgiana, for the first time. She was born 3 days after Papaw died last year. Very bittersweet. It was a wonderful week visiting with everyone and having some "down" time. I didn't get any home improvements done that I had intended to do, but that's ok. There's plenty of time for that. Life goes on. I'm forcing myself to find a balance between staying organized/keeping a clean house and not worrying myself to death over it. Because ultimately, some of those things just don't matter. But there comes a point when dirty dishes and laundry just HAVE to be done. So I'm trying. Aloette is off to a great start so far this year and I can't wait to see what's in store for me and my career. Robert and I are planning our 10 year anniversary trip to Italy in 2013, so I'll be using that as my goal for lots of things. I hope your goals and dreams for the future are up and running. I read this yesterday "Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much." I like that. Dreams are what give us hope for something greater for ourselves. And who doesn't want something greater? Not that I dislike what I have or where my life is, but why not dream for greater things? So my next dream is Italy. It's been my dream for a long time, and I'm finally going to make sure it happens. Here's to Italy!
This year is hopefully going to be very uneventful for our family. 2010 and 2011 kinda sucked, so I think we're due a happy, boring, peaceful year. No cancer. No deaths. No cancer. No accidents. No cancer. No relocations. No cancer. Just good. Lots and lots of good. Hope your year promises to be as good as I'm praying ours is! Happy 2012!