And so it goes...

The year 2010, that is.
It was a full year, with several life-changing events.

First and foremost, the arrival of this little guy.

I use the term "little" loosely, he was almost 9 pounds and a natural birth (although MUCH easier than his 7 1/2 pound sister who was sunny-side up).

Mr. Dominic James Langley arrived on March 21st of 2010, and we were all quite excited to meet him. His big sister didn't fully grasp what was going on since she was not quite 2, but she was very happy to have mommy back home and put up with the intrusive little blue bundle until he got more interactive.

3 months later, Miss AnnaSophia Grace Langley turned 2 years old in a quiet celebration with us and her grandparents, aunts & uncles. She got to try real cake for the first time, took one bite, declared that she didn't like it and ignored it in favor of her precious strawberries. The vanilla ice cream that Aunt Mona snuck her, on the other hand, she LOVED.

On a not so pleasant note, at the end of May I was laid off from my job of almost 5 years. I started working there the November after I graduated from college, and they laid me off 9 days after I returned from maternity leave with the D-man. I am currently still on unemployment and we're busy rethinking some life strategies and making some major decisions. More on that later.

It was a big year for firsts, baby's first 4th, Thanksgiving, Christmas, he's currently sporting 5 teeth at 9 months of age, can sit up on his own and has a funky little army crawl going on. ZaZa doubled and possibly even tripled her vocabulary and loves to sing songs about what she's currently doing. Narration by song, if you will. She's 2 1/2 going on 16 and likes to tell me what to do.

(I'm in the process of telling her not to take his sock off. As you can tell, she's not sure she wants to listen)

It's also my first time being a stay-at-home mom, which I'm still getting used to. When I was working, I used to sit at my desk and make lists of all the stuff that I could have been doing if I had been home. Well, now I'm home and that stuff still ain't happening!

Not gonna lie, besides a few blazing highlights throughout the year, it was overall a pretty rough one.

Here's hoping 2011 is much better. I wish you all health, peace, and contentment.

Every year on this night I always recall our celebrations at my parent's cabin in NY, where I grew up. It was while I was still in high school, so we would toast with sparkling grape juice (still one of my favorite drinks!) and daddy would make a big platter of cheese, crackers, and sweet bologna (the kind that looks like a giant sausage and you have to peel the plastic casing off before you eat it) for everyone to snack on. He would also concoct a dish of spicy brown mustard and mix in enough honey to make it a tangy dip for the cheese & beef. We could easily go through several blocks of cheese before midnight! We would usually watch a movie or two, most likely something black and white because we're awesome like that. One of my favorites to watch on New Year's is "After the Thin Man", with William Powell and Myrna Loy. It's good stuff.

Since we've been married my favorite celebrations have been the ones where we get together with a bunch of friends and play a ton of games until it's time to watch the ball drop. This year the kids are sick, so even if we'd been invited to somebody's place we probably wouldn't have been able to go. So far my night has consisted of a nice warm bath for both of them, after which I doped them up with Vicks and Tylenol, and now I'm sitting here typing this and paying a few bills while Bogie plays Madden on his PS3. We'll turn the TV on in about half an hour and watch the ball drop and then probably go to bed, since ZaZa's woken up at 5 am the past 2 mornings in a row.

Enjoy my Winnie-the-Pooh-esque toast:

May your days be Merry and Bright, and may the New Year bring you Comfort and Joy Beyond Your Wildest Dreams.

Happy New Year.