I’m finally back after a brief holiday blogging hiatus. I hope your holidays were fantastic; ours definitely were. For a brief recap: Christmas Eve with my in-laws and a fun Dirty Santa at Simon’s Grandma’s house. Jude made a haul in toys. That night, we headed to my parents’ house with a sleepy Jude who refused to go back to sleep until, ohhh, 3 am or so. Christmas Day was at my parents’. The next few days were a blur of food and playing the Wii with my nephews before returning home on . .. Saturday? I can’t even remember now. We were happy to return home, only to have a nasty little stomach virus attack Simon on Sunday night. So he didn’t even go back to work on Monday and barely got out of bed.

I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. It’s like the fun just isn’t quite over yet. And New Year’s always feels like a great big fun party. My in-laws took Jude, so we were happily baby-free. I spent the afternoon having lunch with my friend Julie and then ran a few errands. For dinner, Simon took me to Saii Asian Bistro, one of our favorite local Asian places.

It has a yummy variety of Japanese, Chinese, and Thai dishes. The sushi selection is delicious. Afterwards, we headed downtown and saw Seven Pounds with Will Smith. It was a good movie, but really sad, and I don’t ever need to see it again.

Oh, did you see my new shoes from Simon? Great Christmas present, huh?! I LOVE them. Gorgeous little Kate Spade spectator pumps. I really needed some new kicks. Go Simon!

Speaking of presents, here’s what I got him:Yay! A new bike! Yes, that is a pair of small underpants hanging off of the handlebar. We don’t know whose those are or how they got there. This was in my brother’s bedroom at my parents’. Weird.

Ok, back to New Year’s Eve. We ate, we went to the movies. It’s now 10pm. Here’s how old we are. At this point, we could’ve gone home and gone to bed. But we just couldn’t let ourselves do that, so we drove around and gawked at all of the silly single girls in miniskirts and hooker high heels in the 28-degree temperature, click-clacking around Bricktown. They just looked . . . cold. By midnight, I was passed out sound asleep in the passenger seat of the car where we had parked, waiting for the fireworks to begin. I managed to wake up long enough to watch the show, then sacked out again until we got home and I stumbled through the door into bed.

I cannot tell you how delightful it is to sleep in. No really. It is. All you out there with kids, you know what I’m talkin’ about. All of you without kids: enjoy it while you can. We picked Jude up from the ILs and then took Sparky for a long walk.

Wait! Have I introduced you to Sparky? We’re dogsitting this week for my sister who is skiing with her family at Angelfire. I can’t tell you how we love Sparky. He is such a good dog. I may dognap him. His only downfall is the sheer amount of hair he has, which is a stark contrast to our beloved Mazie who was a shorthair Chihuahua. Tumbleweeds of hair . . . that’s all I’ll say about Sparks.

Jude is loving his little red car. He hangs on to the steering wheel and shouts with glee. He also loves the swings at the park. We just have fun, seeing all the other kids, running around with Sparky Sparks.

All in all, we can’t wait to see what 2009 will bring. 2008 definitely had its ups and downs, and we were not sad to see it go. 

So how did you spend your New Year’s?