OK better late than never. December has been extremely busy. Most importantly I am gainfully employed again and I'm really enjoying my new job. We had a wonderful Christmas and are sad to see Christmas vacation end. The picture above is of my kids and Mike, (Lauren's boyfriend) on Christmas Eve, as you can see, three of my daughters, I won't mention any names....Sam, Shannon and Erin, wore sweaters to mass and thought that they were dresses instead of tops. No wonder Dave has high blood pressure.

My sisters stayed with us over the holidays and it was great to be able to spend so much time with my nieces and nephew. They live in Atlanta and my other sister lives in Chicago so I don't get to see them often enough. It was great having little ones in the house again. Shannon gave everyone a gift that keeps on giving. She started throwing up on Dec 22nd. I had a 40th birthday party to go to on the 26th, I started feeling sick on the way to the party. I made it about 45 minutes before I walked out of the bar and threw up all over the sidewalk outside the bar. I looked like a real class act heaving outside a bar the day after Christmas. We had our Murphy Christmas party the next day. I told Dave that we needed to move the party to his sister's house, I was too sick. He insisted that I would be fine and he would take care of everything. He would clean the whole house and have everything ready. He suggested that I "take one for the team." I threw up that whole night. The next morning we had three more pukers. Ryan, Kelsey and my nephew Conor. My mom went grocery shopping for me and Dave and Sam were busy cleaning. I was making Fettuccine and dollar sandwiches. My mom was going to make the dollar sandwiches and I figured I could pull myself together enough to make the fettuccine. I guess grandma thought she would save 50 cents and get thick sliced lunch meat. Her side of the story was that there isn't any flavor in the thin lunch meat. The ham was so gross I pictured a big pig with an apple sticking out of it's mouth at a pig roast on each and every sandwich. (I threw away the last of the sandwiches today.) During the party my sister's youngest, Keira started throwing up. I'm sure all of Dave's brother's and sister's are thrilled that they were invited to the house of death for Christmas.

Lauren started throwing up on New Years Eve, she sent me a text message that said "who would have thought that I would be the one home in sweat pants on New Years Eve." My uncle got married on New Years Eve, the wedding was nice and the reception was over by 7:30, we had a party to go to but Dave didn't feel well so we stayed close to home and took Maggie to go see Marly and Me. It was the best movie I have seen in a long time. Dave started feeling terrible at the movies and ended up spending the rest of his evening throwing up. When he woke up this morning I suggested that we call 50 of our closest friends over for a party so he can "take one for the team."

2008 has been a great year, I got a new job, my kids are healthy, I got back in touch with so many of my dear old friends from grade school and most importantly I achieved my 27 year old goal of meeting my teen idol. It will be hard to top that in 2009.