This is just to cover some of the things I didn’t blog about last year.

I have a new sister. In August, my parents adopted Maria, who is now 6 years old. She was in the foster care system for 4 years, all of which she spent in my parent’s care. Now she is officially part of the family.

Over Thanksgiving break, Molly and I went to Arkansas to celebrate her grandmother Valle’s 80th birthday. At Valle’s party, Molly recited Esau Wood from memory (video), Trey sang a song about Valle set to the tune of “This Land Is Your Land” (video), and Molly’s grandfather sang “Heart of My Heart” to her w/ the accompaniment of a barbershop quartet (video). Special thanks to Carmen for the videos.

We got to hang out with Luke and Brian for a bit while we were down there. They had both gotten engaged (no, not to each other) just a few weeks before our visit, so it was great to be able to visit with them during this exciting time. I’ll be making a trip or two back to Arkansas for some wedding action this year.

Molly’s parents came to our house the weekend before Christmas. We celebrated the holiday with them by preparing a ham dinner and opening some presents. This is when Molly gave me Rock Band 2, which is pretty awesome.

Molly had to work Christmas Eve and the Monday after Christmas, but we managed to get to Pennsylvania and back during that time. Nicholas was also home for the holidays, so it was great to have the whole family together for a couple days.

Stuff I got:

• Rock Band 2 Special Edition
• electric weed whacker/edger
• Super Mario Bros Wii
• “S” christmas ornament
• set of 5 nutcracker ornaments
• Brand New’s “Daisy” cd
• The Killer’s “Hot Fuss” cd
• “A Crooner’s Christmas” cd
• “What’s the Connection? : Amazing Links Among Seemingly Unrelated Things” book
• amazon gift card
• hot plate
• assorted pecan tin
• white candy coated pretzel tin

New Year’s Eve was spent at Kevin & Barb Ziegler’s party.