Pictures to follow...

Merry Christmas (a day late) everyone! Dean took the pictures and I'll have to remind him to get them on here later today!


We had a wonderful day, despite my employer insisting that I work on the 24th and 25th! Dean was still in bed when I got home from work, but I coerced him out of bed - promises of presents! We had so many gifts from our relatives to open that it took a long time before we got to the presents we were giving each other! We both agreed that we must have "been very good" this year! Dean (knowing my fondness for home improvement) gave me a full set of cordless tools (drill, circular saw, reciprocating saw, flash light, and dust vac)! Yea!!! I am very excited about that!!! Within an hour of opening my present I was already telling him my plan for my next project! Granted, not all women would enjoy this kind of gift - and I understand that. But to me, cordless power tools....it sets my heart a-racing! He also gave me two books on tiling. I really like doing tile work (brought my wet saw with me to Arizona!), and have plans to do some tiling in the kitchen and the bathrooms here. Arizona is a great place to find all of the beautiful, decorative, Mexican tiles. We visited a tile store a couple of weeks ago; they not only had the decorative tiles, but also the bathroom sinks to match those tiles! Hmmmm! I see tiling in my future! In addition to the books and tools, he gave me a book on tape, a movie that he knows I like a lot, and a wallet that I described to him - and he picked out the perfect one! I must have been very good this year, and he did a great job shopping (considering he said he might end up shopping for me at the local Circle K gas station)! I didn't get him as many gifts, but I think he likes them. A new robe (he didn't bring his from Illinois), a sweater, and an IPod Nano! Now mind you, I spent two mornings loading music onto the IPod before giving it to him - roughly 20 CD's (more than 24 hours worth) of music! The stereo in his van has some sort of ability to play an IPod through it, also it will be great for him when he goes to the gym to work out. Up until now he has had to pick out the CD to listen to while working out - sometimes not finding the exact one that he was looking for. Now he can have all of his CD's on his IPod and listen to whatever he wants! It has 8G of storage, so he really can carry all of his CD's with him where ever he goes! Fun, but practical gifts, that we should get a lot of use out of!

We had hoped to go up to Kitt Peak to join a friend of ours there, this evening. The weather is not looking promising for that, however. Today is a perfect day for me to sleep - rainy/foggy/chilly - but may not be a good night to go observing. I'll get after Dean to get yesterday's pictures on here soon!

We hope that you had a wonderful holiday, and that 2009 holds nothing but happiness, health, and blessings more than you can count!