2011: Year in Review

I can not believe it is already time for another year in review! Wow! This has been the quickest year of my life, and most definitely one of the strangest.

January:

We celebrated our one year anniversary, and planned a move to San Antonio.

We Moved!

I started substitute teaching. 

February:

Joe spent all but two days of it in Washington D.C. Meanwhile, we had favorite things.

I visited my man in Alexandria! Fell in love by the way.

March:

We got some new furniture. 

We counted fifty things.

My sister and her husband spent a week with us in SA and Houston.

April:

My grandmother passed away, and we celebrated her life. 

We had our "100th"!

We took part in San Antonio's Fiesta.

May:

We added this little guy to our family. 

Joshua had his 5th birthday!

June:

We had too much fun in June to find time to blog. All the actions was recapped here.

July:

My Dad and I spent two weeks in Jelgava, Latvia. 

Joe and I spent way too much money at Borders when they were going out of business.

August:

The McPails had a reunion.

We beat the heat!

September:

We spent a day in our 'hood. 

We went home to Aggieland.

Rémy had to wear the cone of shame. 

October:

My boo turned 25.

My Papa went home to be with His Lord.

We got the official news that we would be moving to Washington D.C. in early summer.

November:

We went to the Texas Renaissance Festival.

I dreamed of hosting my own thanksgiving. 

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Joe's family.

December:

We had 12 (almost) dates of Christmas.

We had our second Christmas card.

We celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas day in Houston with our families.

2011 was quite a year. It held a lot of changes and triumphs. It also held some tragedies. We buried both of my grandparents in a six month span, and of course this was not easy. The holiday season has been the most difficult. My grandfather loved Christmas, and they were both early missed at our dinning table on the 25th. 

Through everything God has been so gracious to us. I pray that as we enter into 2012 that he would prepare our hearts for what he has teach us, and lead us where we should go. 

Happy New Year!

We Need a Little Christmas!

Joe and I spent Christmas day with my family this year. It was for the most part very relaxed and we got to enjoy being all together.

I'm always sad when the Christmas season is over. It is such an anticipated time, and it always goes so quickly.  It's New Years Eve, and I'm enjoying all things Christmas for one more day.

We Need a Little Christmas (Eve)!

On Thursday Joe and I took the familiar trek down Interstate 10 east to Houston. We spent six days with family celebrating the birth of our Christ. This year was a "Diano Christmas day" year, so we had "Christmas morning" with the Weinbergers on the 24th.

I will post later about Christmas day with my family. Tomorrow my mom and I are going to Austin for some girl time (it was one of her Christmas presents). It's going to be wonderful!

The Lord has Come!

" For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord... Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom he favors. " Luke 2:11,14

On the Sixth Date of Christmas...

The Sixth Date of Christmas:

... my true love and I attended the San Antonio symphony's Holiday Pops concert. We had a wonderful time listening to all of the Christmas classics; however, getting there was another story. We- for better or worse- live in the second most visited city in the nation. Combine that with holiday traffic you get full parking garages, an hours worth of traffic within the distance of about 1.5 miles, and two very frustrated locals. We live seriously 1.5 miles from the theater- at 7:00 we were in the car, not until 7:58 did we walk into the theater. By then we were both cursing San Antonio, and longing for our new residence that has safe and reliable public transit. None the less, once we got settled we enjoyed the concert immensely. 

The mister and I have a baking date scheduled for wednesday evening: Parisian macarons are on the docket. 

On the Fifth Date of Christmas...

The Fifth Date of Christmas:

... my true love and I had a Christmas feast. Joseph made me braised lamb shank, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, roasted broccoli, french bread, and a bottle of prosecco. I helped a bit, and we always enjoy cooking together. Perhaps a continuation of our date, this morning we went and bought our "babies" (Rémy & Bella) some Christmas treats. It is going to be so hard we actually have human babies- I'm going to want to buy them everything. 

We are heading on our sixth date in about an hour to the San Antonio symphony's holiday pops concert. I'm so excited!

On the Fourth Date of Christmas...

The Fourth Date of Christmas:

... my true love and I celebrated the beginning of my Christmas holiday by going to the library, getting some fun new cook books to try, and having drinks at Liberty Bar. While I will still be directing the elementary and secondary choirs, I will unfortunately not be teaching the music classes. The women I took over for decided to return, rather than be a stay at home mom. Durn. I am quite heartbroken honestly, but I'm trusting in the Lord's plan. I of course cried several times yesterday, but Joe tried to make last night fun and celebratory. He is so sweet.  

We are going on a date tonight and tomorrow- I am a spoiled girl.