Happy New Year!

We got the new year off to a ridiculously productive start today.  I woke up early and took Rachel for a brisk 3-mile walk (my new year's resolution is to exercise more) while MJ worked out.  Then we took the dogs to get bathed ... only to discover that the self-serve dog washing place is closed until Tuesday.  Oh well -- a wasted trip for us, but the dogs loved it!

When we got home, we went through stacks of storage in the future nursery.  Currently it is full of photography gear (mine), old VHS tapes and CDs (MJ's) and some other odds and ends.  We made three piles: trash, Goodwill, and keep.  Then we organized some things in the garage in order to free up a large storage bin for me to keep all my photography gear in, and lugged it upstairs to the eves storage.  That way I'll still be able to access it easily, but it will be out of the nursery and not taking up space in a room that we use often.

While in the garage, I found some Ikea cocoa mats that I'd planned on cutting up and using as stair treads on our garage stairs.  Of course that was months ago, and the mats were still in a pile on the garage floor!  So I cut them to fit the steps, nailed them down, and swept up the garage to boot.  Now we have a neat and clean garage, and some stair treads for us to wipe our shoes on before coming into the house.  Another project done!

MJ had some work to do (oh, the life of a busy lawyer!) in the afternoon, but then we packed up all the Christmas decorations.  We usually keep our decorations up until the Feast of the Three Kings on January 6, but we put the tree and garlands up so early this year that they are really starting to look ... well, dead.  :)  So out they go!  Our tree was so dry and brittle that after we were done taking off all the ornaments and lights, there were more branches on the floor than remaining on the tree!

The house always looks so bare after the Christmas decorations are put away, but it's nice not to have pine needles everywhere, and to have all the furniture back where it belongs.  This year, I'm not sad to see the holidays end, because we have so much to look forward to!  2011 is shaping up to be the best year of our lives.  Happy New Year, everyone!