We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (Part 2)

Last New Year's Eve we enjoyed going out with friends and hoped we would soon become pregnant with our first child. This New Year's Eve we stayed at home and tried to balance our champagne flutes while feeding Clara and Wilson. The result was more awkward than Dick Clark's countdown. Wow, what a difference a year makes! We were really glad a few of our friends came over to keep us awake ring in the new year but, when the ball dropped, we were also happy to close the book on 2011.

If you've kept up with us through the blog this year, thank you. It means more than you'll ever know. It also means you know about all the ups and downs we experienced with Clara and Wilson, so we'll refrain from even attempting a recap. Instead, we'll use this opportunity to look ahead to 2012.

New Year's Resolutions

1. Get More Sleep - we're hoping this is a New Year's Resolution the entire McGarvey family (cough, Clara and Wilson, cough cough) will adopt.
2. Take Time for Each Other - whether once a week or once a month, take at least one night to go out for dinner, movie, concert, etc. without the kids.
3. Empty the Diaper Genie Sooner - yeah, that needs to happen.
4. Quit Talking to Each Other Through the Babies - for example, "Clara, I bet your daddy would love to get up and get your bottles ready" or "Wilson, is it Mommy's turn to change your diaper?" We are both guilty of doing this. However, when we catch ourselves doing it we intentionally make our comments funny and that usually results in delirious midnight laughter. (Typing this made me realize we must implement New Year's Resolution #2 and get out of the house a little more).
5. Take Down the Christmas Decorations - it would really be great if we could do this before the end of January, but don't judge us too harshly if you drive by our house in February or March and see candles in the windows.
6. Keep the Kids Healthy - it is important to remember how fragile Clara and Wilson are, especially during the height of cold and flu season.
7. Keep Laughing - turns out that's important.

We've been writing this post in little pieces for most of the last 10 days, but our time at night is more limited. We have pictures of the kids we've been meaning to post for Chris' family in Arkansas, a birthday pic of Clara and Wilson for Uncle Dave's birthday, and some funny stories we want to share. Hopefully we'll get to some of those eventually. However, our biggest news of the New Year might explain the delay. On January 3rd, Chris went back to work. The transition has been smoother than we expected, and Chris is handling the situation with perfect aplomb, but our nights are little busier. Chris going back to work has also directly coincided directly with Clara's and/or Wilson 's decision to stop sleeping during the night. It hasn't been good for our sleep habits or our blogging. Hopefully we'll get more time to do both.

Thanks again for sticking with us through what was a pretty tough year. We're excited about 2012 and wish you all a Happy New Year!

The kids are growing every day. Their development led directly to the first
"Wilson, stop eating your sister's head" quote.
Hey, at least they're noticing each other.