Out Goes 2011, In Comes 2012

2011 was a pretty darn good year.  It was The Year of the Wedding; not just mine, but three other close friends tied the knot.  It was a year of showering and bacheloretting and planning, planning, planning.  Then our wedding, which was everything we'd hoped it would be, and our honeymoon, which was better than we could have imagined.  2011 was exhausting, but amazing.

I expect 2012--Steve's and my first year as a family--to be just as good, if not quite as eventful.

We wrapped up the year with a visit to Steve's parents' house.  His grandparents were on their annual driving trip through California, and as an added bonus, Steve's aunt and uncle, two cousins, and cousin's new husband all joined us, hailing from Texas and Alaska.  We had a lovely New Year's Eve visiting and eating good food and playing with all the dogs (we'd brought Chloe, and the Texas group brought their two dogs and a brand new Jack Russel terrier puppy for the Alaska couple to take home).

The last hours of 2011 seemed appropriate: we slept.  We fell asleep about 10:00, just after Chicago celebrated the New Year.  I'd been slowly and slowly coming down with something headcold-y, and I just couldn't make it to midnight our time.  Which is a first... is this what getting married does to a person??

The first day of 2012, though.  I choose to believe we've just gotten the worst out of the way.

Steve and I were so. sick.  We couldn't get out of bed to go to breakfast with the family.  We'd planned to get on the road by 10 or 11, but I ended up asking for late check-out at 1:00.  When it didn't look like we'd make it by 1, I called and extended our stay one more night, just to get a few extra hours of recovery before the four-hour drive.

We stumbled out the door at 5:00pm.  I was feeling well enough to drive; Steve was not.  In fact, he threw up in my car.  And I survived!  I thought having someone throw up in my car would be the end of the world, the absolute the end of me, so I'm going to take that as a character growth experience.  (*Shudder*)

The drive was thankfully smooth after that, and we made it home in one piece.  I have to admit, my "wish on the clock" at 5:55 was for us to make it home safely.  (So thank you, clock-wish granter, for delivering.)  I even made it home in time to get a whole eight hours of sleep in before work this morning, which, unfortunately, I can't miss.  Still not feeling great, but hopefully it'll be a calm day.

So, like I said, we got sick taken care of on Day 1.  It's all looking up from here!

Happy 2012!