I'm trying really hard not to title this a "Best of", "great in oh-8", or "retrospective" post

But I can't think of anything clever at the moment. Probably because I'm home alone on New Year's Eve with nothing to do but A: Play Rock Band by myself, so really, its more like "Rock Mom" than "Rock Band" and, well, isn't that just sort of pathetic? B: Blog. I like blogging, it doesn't make me feel too badly about myself. or C: Do Laundry. Well, if playing Rock Band by yourself is too pathetic of a New Year's Eve activity then surely doing laundry would make me want to slit my wrists, right? So, best to avoid THAT one more day.

So anyways, I guess I decided to blog with my bad lonesome self and spend some quality time looking back on 2008. Just to be sure, I checked back and realized that I didn't even start this blog until April. It originally was meant to replace a family blog we had kept while living some distance from the rest of the family, but it had ALOT of personal information and after attending some seminars on internet safety, we decided to just completely dump that blog into the "delete" box and start over. Well, things never really were the same after hitting that little blue box. I have to say, that being limited in what I could share about family specifics made me get a little more creative, and I'm glad I did. ( Even if occassionally JP hijacks the blog and posts-shall we say "interesting"- items of repute that has yet to be determined.) I've made some friends along the way and wow, has that helped with the lonely factor. ( yeah yeah, I know, who's lonely? I live in a city with millions of people, right?...need I remind you I'm home on NYE without having had to turn down any invitations?)

Looking back I realized we've had ALOT of fun. We've encountered the "No Kimchi for You" waitress, the Mad Crumper, and Incontinence. Don't forget the Happy Endings!  We've done the shaky-butt dance, chased each other with water baloons, paid $4.99 for gas, visited the Beach a couple of times, and buried my grandmother.  I had the privilege of gaining 20 lbs
But, you can't really tell...lol...(that's its only 20 and not 40)being assaulted with a deadly weapon (yeah, that really happened like in May or June and I didn't blog about it at the time because I just didn't want to talk about it) and having 3 callings in a 7 month period.

JP started a new job, Gabe started Kindergarten, Emily started Junior High, and Annie started High School. (Someday I'll actually write about why I don't write about Annie and Em very much) Lily is dying to start Pre-school and I'd love to start Karate, but its very expensive, so for now I'm playing the role of supportive mom. ( Although JP and I did wonder if it would be ok if we held our very own fight-class on the sidewalk outside the dojo...what do you think? Would that be inappropriate?)

The year came to an end all too quickly, I just didn't have time to attend all the parties we were invited too (oh, you already heard we didn't get a single invitation to a single holiday party this year? Who's talking about me? and where'd they hear that?) or eat all the cookies that were dropped off at our front porch. ( oh wait, that's a lie too. not one, not even a stale old half-eaten one) And I certainly loved going to the zoo lights with my "free" passes which I gave away to complete strangers because I thought they were supposed to be for guests since we had a membership which gets us into the zoo at all other times, and ended up paying for ourselves to get in because I was too embarrassed to ask for the passes back. We did have a wonderful time bowling with the AZ cousins though. That was a wonderful day which I think needs to be a tradition for the first Monday of Christmas break each year.

I guess I can truly say the year hasn't been half bad, in fact its been more than half good.  I wonder what 2009 will send our way? Hopefully some more of the kind of stuff we had this year, without the assualts and rude waitresses and stuff.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!-The Clan of the Cave Hair, also known as Lisa, Jp, Annie, Emily, Gabriel, and Lily