Happy New Year!

Well, Happy New Year and all that.  So, what's been going on?
I found a draft of the Costa Rica trip that I promise to save and add pictures to, but not right now.  The trip was wonderful, a long weekend with family that we miss dearly, and the weather was terrific.
I came back to the usual whirlwind of school, more school and family stuff.  The elder two Things are off at college far enough to be enjoying their own lives, and close enough to come home and do laundry every so often.  Thing 1 still works for her dad every other weekend, and usually Thing 2 heads home with her, when she's not working there.  They've got an apartment right next to campus, and  Thing 2 is doing her best to fill it with cats.  
Our annual Thanksmas with my side of the family was cut a bit short with the realities of growing families and outside commitments, but we had a great time together with that gang.
I survived the fall semester of grad classes, pulling off a 3.5 gpa by a small miracle.  I feel like I actually learned stuff this semester, which is a bonus when taking classes I really never planned to need.  I am thankful to be working full time, and I am thankful that my district likes me well enough to offer me a job on a variance in a new (but related) department when I could have simply been cut.  I am feeling out of my milieu, however, and a bit overwhelmed with the requirements of a new license.
Our Christmas break has been fun, gathering with the iPastor's family and having all my own Things around.
Amid all this whirlwind, the first couple of contractors have been by to bid on our long-overdue kitchen upgrade.  We're looking at options from simple updates to entire reconstruction, and it's very very $cary, but pretty exciting as well.
I'm having a lovely sweatpants day while I get ready to reboot for heading back to the grind tomorrow  I have all the usual plans and good intentions, but I  ever-so-smugly sneer at the hackneyed idea of  New Year resolutions.  Realistically, though, with the little pause in the work and school schedule, the new year is as good a time as any for a reboot, despite the cliche.  :)