Quiet New Year's Eve tonight, spent at home. We cooked up a nice ham dinner, and then relaxed.

Dan surprised me with the suggestion that we all four go to visit my friend in New York when the kids have spring break. Unfortunately, we do not know when spring break is. The school district does not have a contract with the teachers this year, so they are issuing the calender in three month increments, which only go through the end of January. The next three month increment should be out soon, though. So if it comes out before I have to turn in my vacation requests for the year, I can ask for a long weekend the same week they have off, and we can go to New York then. Otherwise, perhaps I can ask for a long weekend around Easter, which is usually (though not always) when they get their time off, and hope for the best. It was very sweet of him to suggest this, as he knows how much my previous plans meant to me. We will have to wait and see how things go.

Other than that, I will probably ask for a random week off in the summer, a long weekend to go to the national championship Steven will be wrestling in, everyone's birthdays, and perhaps a week at Christmas. I think Dan's family is supposed to be having a reunion out in California, and my sisters want to get together in West Virginia. But my work requires me to ask for time off for a year at a time, and if people want me to come they have to give their dates to me, which, thus far, no one has. This year will be complicated by Billy going on his school trip to France and Spain, and the kids going to wrestling camp down in Columbus again. But right now, it looks as if I actually won't be taking much time off...

The following summer, however, Bill will be graduating high school, and I think I will want to do some special things for him. I promised him if he made it through four years of French, I would take him to Montreal. But that could be done in a longish weekend. I was also thinking about taking a couple of weeks off and heading someplace out West -- Yellowstone and the Tetons come to mind immediately. as does the Pacific Northwest, a part of the country I have never visited. We will have to wait and see.

 

And Happy New Year!! I am very glad that 2005 is here!!!