Welcome, 2011!

We spent about a week after Christmas in Rolla as well, and had great New Year festivities, which I will briefly outline here.

• The morning of New Year's Eve, we learned from the news that a Tornado Watch had been issued, and that we should stay tuned as the storm came closer and news developed.  Eventually the watch because a Warning, and that means we all headed down to the basement where the kids promptly had a prayer and some special Tornado Treats in the storm shelter under the stairs (there's a monthly tornado drill, so the kids know just what to do).  The reports were that the storm was getting pretty close, but all we really saw of it was a LOT of rain and thunder, though it did touch down just a few miles from our house, and apparently killed a few people who were not under adequate shelter.  It was a little scary, but after an hour or two, the clouds vanished and the sun came out, and I even went running.  Crazy!  We were warned we might get more of the storm later in the day, but it didn't seem to come back.
• After that hubbub died down, we had a nice, quiet New Year's Eve, watching movies and episodes of Better Off Ted until midnight, where we heard local fireworks going off and watched about five minutes of the New York happenings, which turned out to be plenty.  (Some of the musical "artists" we suffer these days, my stars.)
•  Early New Year's Day, Julie, Marci and I woke up and ran a small, local 5K (which we also ran with Tyler two years ago when we were in town for the New Year, and this time with a much improved time!).  Entrance fee was a can of food for charity, and the turnout was about 25-30.  It had been pretty warm for a few days, and all the snow had melted, but 2011 started with temperatures in the teens and below, so it was an invigorating race.  According to my best estimate, my time was about 21:15-20, and I came in second overall.  (Like I said, it was a small race.)

• We spent the rest of the day eating delicious treats and playing with the kids.

  

  Such a tiny ice cream cone!

  I introduced William to The Twilight Zone as we watched a few episodes when we were done with video games (this may or may not prove to have been a mistake--after all, I was traumatized by The Dummy episode when I was like 11, and he's only 6).  I didn't get to see much of SyFy's annual Twilight Zone marathon this year, but that's okay because we only a few weeks ago finished watching all the episodes we still had recorded on the DVR from last year's marathon.
• Julie and I made Full English Breakfast for everyone, and it was a big hit.  This might be the start of a New Year's Day tradition.

 

• I had this insane impulse a couple weeks earlier when my hair and beard were getting particularly out of hand, so I decided:  New Year, new hair.  After a full facial shave, at the capable hands and clippers of Marci, with Julie's assistance, I received what surely must be my shortest haircut ever.  I thought I would panic when I saw it, but I secretly love it.  (I guess not so secretly now.)  It's probably even shorter than it ever was when I was a missionary.  The kids had to warm up to me again after, but Julie's parents really liked it.  Julie didn't recognize me when she glanced my way for the first little bit, but she kind of likes it too, and it's already growing out anyway.  (And yes, I will admit that my inspiration for the look was this.  I figured I could pull off the look now that I'm more slender than I was as a missionary.  I thought this haircut made my head look tiny back then.)  I'm still trying to decide if this is going to become another New Year tradition...

BEFORE

 

 

 

 

 

AFTER

• We said a sad goodbye to the Midwest, and had a safe and uneventful flight back to freezing cold Salt Lake City on Sunday evening.  The airplane was basically a tin can, and they didn't offer free Wi-Fi on this one (like they did on the flight over), but the passengers were a total LOST cast, and we both finished our books.  We made it home just in time to get back to work the next morning. *sigh*  Goodbye for now, vacation.  We'll meet again soon, I hope.  Until then, down comes the Christmas tree and lights.

Say, who is that guy anyway?

We'll be back soon, wife!  Never fear.

2010 was exquisite.  I expect nothing less from you, 2011!  In case people were interested, and didn't get to see our Christmas card, or couldn't read the tiny font of the text, here are our Top 10 of 2010:

Happy 2011, everyone!