Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a good Christmas or Channukah or Kwanzaa and a festive New Year's Eve. We are (finally) back home after a four hour drive earlier today into town. I was gone the entire week since I was off. I figured I'd stay at my parents' house and visit with them, the rest of my family and my best friend. I did and I'm glad I stayed. Even though I missed Robert the couple of days I didn't see him. And he missed Sofia like crazy. Talk about a lot of driving. We drove in on Christmas Eve, I stayed but Robert drove back into Houston the Tuesday after Christmas. Then he drove back to San Antonio on Friday and back into Houston today (with myself and Sofia). I'll be happy to not make that drive for a long time! Especially since Sofia has taken to really hating her carseat. She cries and cries for long stretches. A four hour drive is not fun. We also have to stop and change her at least once. It's rough.

Anyway, we were in San Antonio for Christmas, then for New Year's. We spent New Year's Eve at my older sister's house with all my siblings but one (I'm one of five) and some friends. It was fun except Sofia stayed up until midnight right along with everyone. She fell asleep at 9 pm and I thought she was down for the night, but she woke at 10 pm and stayed awake until the end of the night. My sister lives in the 'hood, and everyone around there pops fireworks. Yes, even with the so-called "burn ban" in Texas and the fact that we were completely inside city limits. This made for a very loud evening. Of course I was a little concerned with the noise, but we made it through the night and Sofia fell asleep when we got back to my parents' house. She kept falling asleep later and later as the week went by, so hopefully I can get her back on her sleep schedule without too much of a problem. She's napping now.

We had a rough week leading up to Christmas. Car trouble with both cars, then repairs costing a small fortune. Robert was deathly ill, and Sofia got an ear infection. So, the Friday before Christmas Eve, our sick family drove around and shopped for Christmas presents. We managed to get everything, but Christmas weekend was just crazy and rushed. At least we got to spend time with family and I got that whole week with my parents. They got their granddaughter fix. They could not get enough of that child. Everytime I came out with the baby, one of them would swoop in and snatch her up. They took care of her a couple of evenings while I was gone for a few hours. They were more than happy to. This was nice as we have no sitter where we live.

This visit really made me think more of relocating closer to my family. I know four hours isn't really that far, but now that we have Sofia, it's really rough making that drive and packing all her stuff. The husband agrees that we should try to relocate. We'll see if it's possible.

I hope 2006 brings lots of good things and I hope that Sofia grows bigger and stronger and smarter each day. I can't believe that this time next year Sofia will be walking and talking. Amazing. Good luck to you all in this new year!