Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful Christmas! We drove to Mississippi to visit family: my mom, my brother Derek and his wife Arthi, their two children Jake and Olivia, and my brother Mark. We also got to see two sets of uncles and aunts and a cousin and some second cousins. It was great to connect with family again.

On our way back to south Texas, we stopped in Houston to cheer for our Northwestern Wildcats against the Texas A&M Aggies in the Meinecke Car Care Bowl. Some pics:

The 'Cats couldn't pull out a win, but they did give it a good try at the end. It was fun to sing the fight song and sit in the stadium. We may try to go to another big game with the kids ... in a few years. They did great during the first half, but lost enthusiasm after the halftime show. :)

Each of the kids got a matching purple Wildcats shirt to wear to the game. I wore my old #51 jersey from college (Yay Pat Fitzgerald! For those who don't follow NU football, he was our all star middle linebacker when I was in school - and now he's the head coach).

Hopefully I'll post again soon. I have lots of thoughts about December, 2011 and plans for 2012. And Ben is 5 months old already!