2011 Wrap-Up

This year has been busy, although mostly just with the little day-to-day things that go on. Last night, driving home from our Christmas visit with the extended Los G familia, G-man, the Juj and I tried to remember what we'd done this past year:

• January - I had a meeting with my extended team of co-workers in Dallas. Folks came from Argentina, India, and Colorado, and the Juj got to come bowling with us and eat fancy cupcakes (who was foolish enough to put me in charge of catering?!). And we had the great Dallas Ice Storm of 2011, to the detriment of Super Bowl. Plus J started guitar lessons, on the electric guitar Santa brought.
• February - G-man started CASA training -- and immediately got assigned a case!
• March - A little minor surgery for me, which forced me to take a work break for a few days because I, um, couldn't sit down. But I was able to finish the month with a quick trip to Austin to visit with my brother, who came out from Washington to attend Play Immersion.
• April - Every year, J's school takes the Upper Elementary students on "the Great Field Trip" (as alluded to in my one post from March). This year, they got to go to the Capitol city of the Great State of Texas: Austin! And as soon as he got back, we hopped back in the car, and went back down to San Antonio for Easter with the extended G familia.
• May - Went back down to San Antonio for a long Mother's Day weekend, where we had family portraits made of all three generations together, and in various smaller groupings. Also found out J's wonderful Montessori school was closing, so we decided to spend the summer trying out summer camps at two alternative schools to decide which would work best for us all.
• June - Day time summer camps.
• July - July took a couple of weeks off from summer camps. We went down to San Antonio as a family, then he stayed to visit with aunties, cousins and grandparents for another week until we came to pick him up.
• August - We took J down to San Antone for another visit alone, before picking him up on our want down to South Padre Island with Mr. W and the little W's, just in time for the annual Los Fresnos Elvis festivities. Then, the Juj started at his new wonderful (but rather further away) Montessori.
• September - VERY EXCITING MONTH! (As always, September through December seem to whizz by faster each year.) G-man got accepted to the Master's program in Social Work at U.T. Arlington at the last possible moment (some mix-up with his application files). So he started immediately, and only missed the first week of classes. My best friend from college got married, in the wedding bash of the century (or at least of the decade) in Nashville. Fun to see old friends from the dance / theater days, marvel at the lovely bride, and finally meet her wonderful new husband.  (Like G-man and I, they'd been together a long time before tying the knot.) *And* Juj turned nine.
• October - Celebrated J's birthday with two other boys from his old school, with a sleepover at Great Wolf Lodge. Mom's and dad's ears are still ringing! (Really, why would anyone build an indoor water park?) Then J got lots of one-on-one time with each parent, as G-man attended a CASA conference in San Marcos, I had a few days of work meetings in Colorado, and then Gil co-facilitated a Beyond Categorical Thinking session in Arizona. While J's birthday celebration was a bit late, Diana's came early: Sprint finally got the iPhone, which meant while everyone else was fighting over Siri, a certain very long time Spring customer slipped in and out with a "plain old" 4. Woo-hoo! And THEN my parents arrived for a visit in time for Halloween!
• November - My parents' visit ended, and then we had a lovely quick weekend with some family friends in town on the way home to Oklahoma from a fencing match. For Thanksgiving, we had testosterone (it was just the three of us, plus 3 male friends) and a Thanksgiving Turkey Cake, which probably deserves its own "making of" post with the Flickr pictures.
• December - G-man finished up his first semester of grad school (and kicked butt, of course!) I made a (somewhat) last minute business trip to Buenos Aires, to meet some employees that are now reporting to me. Loved Buenos Aires (and my new team), although I'm not sure how to put my feelings into words. Then I was in an accident on my first day back, while taking J home from his last day of school. No one was hurt (except the vehicles), and it wasn't my fault so the other guy's insurance is paying, but did have to go through the associated hassles of reporting, rental cars, etc.

Suddenly Christmas was upon us! We did a long weekend in San Antonio, where my dear husband and I did NOT make Christmas dinner for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long, which was odd but delicious and restful (with grateful appreciation to the rest of the family!) We headed home to work a few days (and see some movies that were not Juj-appropriate), then turned around and went back to pick up J. 

Since it was a one night hotel stay, and the Riverwalk always has wonderful holiday lights, and I'm pretty good at milking internet bargains (although G-man still kicks my behind on that front!), I booked us at the Hotel Contessa. It was every bit as lovely as we'd hoped from our visits to the bar & restaurant in the past, but somewhat uneven. (Valet service not so good, gorgeous big suite overlooking the river, but a couple of items in disrepair in the bathroom, wait staff very nice but over-busy, food and cocktails yummy...) 

However, we had a lovely stay, had time to look at the lights a bit, and are now back home, drinking Mexican hot chocolate and eating home-made bunelos, fresh from San Antonio yesterday.

We are certainly living the fortune: 

May you live in interesting times! 

There have been marriages and divorces among our friends, better and worse health in our (aging) families, and babies and children growing up all around us. We celebrate the joys together, try to share the losses, and remember to count our blessings. May the New Year bring the peace and love everyone needs!