Going by the number of articles written, it’s clear that I had less time/energy to blog in 2011 than any of the preceding years; but that doesn’t mean the year wasn’t noteworthy! I’m hoping to write more frequently in 2012; but until then, here’s a quick recap of some of the events that happened to the Thomas Family in the year that was.

Everyday Life

By the end of the year, we had been back in Australia for 18 months. Both Kristy and I still dearly miss London, and I think part of us will always yearn to go back. However, we’re also loving the comforts and familiarity of being back “home”, having a place of our own, and so many family and friends close by. Oh, and did I mention the beaches?

We didn’t spend nearly enough time enjoying these in 2011, which is another thing that we will be rectifying in 2012.

As for working, Kristy continued in her role as a full-time Mum to Oscar. I was promoted at Dingu Blue to Lead Developer, and I spent most of my year building software for SmartClinics.

Our address remained unchanged, and I can’t see it changing again anytime in the near future. Though we love our house at Everton Hills, we’ve identified a few parts that could be better. We’ve already installed a kitchen, fans, and insulation, but by the end of the year, we had also engaged a draftsman to help us work through some of our bigger ideas. More on that later!

Highlights/Lowlights

By far, one of the biggest highlights of the year was Aubain and Ingrid’s visit to Australia! Crazily, they were only here for one week; we’re still trying to convince them that they can’t do Australia justice without committing for at least a few years! Nonetheless, we made the most of the time that we had with them, with a quick jaunt to Sydney, followed by a few days on the Sunshine Coast, and of course – a tour around Brisbane city.

Here’s some of the other highlights/lowlights of 2011. It’s all about perspective.

• The Brisbane floods! We got a deluge of rain which caused the Brisbane river to break its banks. Our workplace didn’t escape the flooding, and it was weeks (months?) before things got back to normal.
• We planted our first geocache.
• Kristy celebrated her first Mother’s Day, and I celebrated my first Father’s Day.
• My PS3 died the yellow light of death, but thankfully it was recovered only a few weeks later.
• The successful opening of SmartClinics’ first outlet at Westfield Chermside. This was a culmination of months of long days and nights developing the software to run their clinics. Lou and Steve, Ben and Michelle, and Kristy and I celebrated the achievement with a child-free night out on the town.
• I started riding to work a few days a week, and have been thoroughly enjoying the extra exercise.
• The three of us got horrifically sick at the end of November, and it took us weeks to fully shake all our symptoms.

Love

2011 was a good year for the lovers! The year finished on a high note when Mel – a very long time friend – married Ben, one of the most stand-up guys around. They’re two of the most selfless people that you could ever meet! We were quite impressed that they had sign-language interpreters on hand for their hearing impaired guests – as well as with their amazing choreographed dance routine!

A few other highlights for the lovers:

• March saw baby Ryan Daniel jump into the world a touch early (but none-the-less healthy!) to second-time parents Jason and Kellie.
• In April, we saw Nathan and Kelly married at what was probably the most spectacular weddings I’ve ever witnessed. Seriously, impressive!
• Adam Robert John was born to parents Jason and Louise in June.
• Travis and Kira (who I’ve known pretty much since the day she was born) were married in Brisbane city in July.
• Baby Nina Jean was born to proud-as-punch parents Stacey and Wes in August.
• Grant and Cathy welcomed “A” baby number three with Abilgail Linda coming in to the world in September.
• All the way over in Canada, Levi Alexander was born to Geoff and Eva in October – only four days short of sharing the best birthday in the world .
• Amjad (who I worked with at Lloyds in London) and his wife Sobia were joined by Baby Haris in November.
• Also in November, Elise Tilly Joelle was welcomed into the world by parents Aubain and Ingrid.

Travel

It’s definitely easier to travel domestically these days – especially to places we can drive, as we always pack out the car carrying things for Oscar. But we still managed to get Oscar the first stamp in his passport in 2011, with a trip to Fiji with Team Threebie and Team Dahl! Sadly, sickness plagued many of our party (with Ben being hit especially hard) – but it was still an enjoyable, memorable trip for everyone.

Other trips that we took in 2011:

• We enjoyed a midweek vacation over Australia Day, crashing Team BaM’s pad at Golden Beach.
• Mom and Dad hosted us and Team BaM at their unit in Grande Florida.
• We spent a few days wandering around Melbourne with Kristy’s parents, after Nathan and Kelly’s wedding. My first visit to Melbourne since I was but a wee lad!
• Rob, Ben and I took an overnight trip to Sydney for the Remix 2011 conference.
• We had a great long weekend with The Durhams in celebration of Amyfest 2011.
• Jason, Louise and Baby Adam drove up from Sydney to join us for a week at Kingscliff.
• We rounded off the year with a few days down the coast at Christmas with Mom and Dad.

Music, Culture, and Theatre

Did I mention we don’t get out much these days? But that’s not going to stop me missing a good gig when it comes to town!

• Stu, Ben and I saw Eddie Vedder play on his solo tour at QPAC.
• Kristy and I happened to be in Melbourne when one of our favourite artists – Imogen Heap – was doing a show, so with Mia and Pa on babysitting duty, we popped along to check it out.
• I saw Jimmy Eat World play at The Tivoli along with Jason, Susan and Ben.

Oscar

Last, but definitely by no means least – little Oscar Moo. What a year he had! Being a parent is certainly an experience that no matter how prepared you are for it, you’ll never really be ready for the challenges you face. Everyone has their own approach to parenthood, and every child is different – something we’ve learned time and time again this year! It’s amazing how much Oscar changed in 2011, and yet when you see him every day, you barely notice the differences!

Of course, it wasn’t cotton candy for the whole year through; on the contrary, there were a number of lowpoints too. For the first nine months of his life, Oscar was not a fan of sleeping, which meant Kristy and I didn’t get much of it, either. Suffice to say, it’s amazing what a difference a full night of sleep makes – not to mention contiguous full nights of sleep! And, Kristy and I were nervous wrecks when Oscar had to pay a visit to the Emergency Room. And it wasn’t the only time, either – by the end of the year, he’d clocked up three separate trips to the ER!

Still – these are all part and parcel of being a parent, so we’ve done our best to take things in our stride and concentrate on the highlights instead; of which, there were plenty!

• Trying solid food for the first time, and the subsequent face that followed.
• Dressing in matching outfits. Yep, I’m that guy.
• Watching all his physical skills develop – learning to roll over (four/five months), sitting (seven months), shuffling (10/11 months – he never really crawled!), then walking (14 months). Oh, and of course – high fives (nine months).
• Happy Birthday to you! Oscar turned one in September.
• Discovering that he really does understand what you’re saying to him. I’ll never forget when this first became apparent to me. I was playing with Oscar on his mat, and I said to him, “Go and get your toy truck, and we’ll push it at the blocks together.”. He looked at me for a second, then shuffled off to grab the truck, then brought it back to me and sat in my lap so we could push the truck together. I was blown away!

If you feel as though I’ve missed out something/someone important, it’s probably because you’re wrong, and I don’t care. Either that, or that my memory isn’t as good as it used to be; feel free to try your luck by letting me know.

2010 was the year where everything changed, and there was no shortage of things to keep us busy! Here’s a look back over the year that was.
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As we farewell 2009, it’s a good time to have a look back at all the good times that the year provided us with.

Life

A few major life changes this year, not so much for us but for some of the folks we love!

• Stacey and Wes’ were married at the start of March in a lovely beach ceremony in Tassie
• Our family expanded when Jason and Susan were married at the end of March down at Kingscliff
• Justine and Tim got engaged in June!
• Matthew and Emily got engaged in December!

Overseas holidays

• We kicked things off with a week of skiing in Morzine at the end of January
• We flew back to Australia in March. That flight never gets old.
• From there, we flew to Tassie for Stacey and Wes’ wedding, as well as a fantastic week of touring with Team BaM and Mel
• Nick became our first overseas friend to come and visit in Australia! We gave him a local tour, but given how busy our trip was, we didn’t get to do too much with him. Hopefully he’ll come back once we’ve moved home for a more extensive site-seeing trip.
• Nick, Kristy and I spent a few days in Singapore on our way back to London
• Jason and Susan came to visit us in London, and the four of us took a three day trip to Amsterdam.
• We flew to Jamaica for Uncle Martyn’s 70th birthday party.
• We booked a last minute trip to New York to spend a wonderful few days there with Mom and Dad, the cousins, and my Uncles. Ah, Chipotle, how I miss you…
• We spent a weekend trying to stay warm and avoid the rain in Bruges and Brussels
• We froze our butts off in Düsseldorf to celebrate Kirsty’s 30th birthday, and we got stuck there overnight due to the snow

Touring around the UK

We’re trying to see as much of the UK as we can while we’re here, and we did quite well this year with a number of local trips!

• We joined Nick and Suzie for a long weekend in Devon over one of the bank holidays in May
• Al and Becca gave us the highlights tour of Cambridge
• We spent a weekend in a super old house in Bedfordshire to celebrate Nick’s 30th
• Kristy and I spent the last long weekend of the year in Caerphilly, Wales
• Dean and Leanne joined us for a weekend on The Isle of Wight. It was windy!
• Matthew and Emily were nice enough to give us a tour of Canterbury
• We flew up to Aberdeen to spend Christmas with Racey and Wes, and even managed to squeeze in a day of skiing

Music, Culture, and Theatre

• We saw the Lost and Found Orchestra play at Southbank, and it was amazing!
• Kristy saw A Little Night Music and loved it
• We saw The Butterfly Effect play an awesome, intimate gig at The University of London in May
• Al and I saw Faith No More play their first show in donkies, at my favourite venue – Brixton Academy
• We saw Pearl Jam play at O2 Arena (even though I mistakenly bought tickets to the Manchester show originally)
• Ariella convinced us to see Insane in the Brain – a hip-hop dance interpretation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• For Kristy’s Birthday, I got us tickets to see The Mousetrap, the longest running show in the world.
• We saw another Aussie band – Karnivool – play at a very intimate venue at Angel.

The highs and lows…

…and all the creamy middles. You can decide which is which.

• It snowed so heavily in February that all of the public transport shut down
• We got to meet our second nephew, Reuben! Now we’re waiting on the arrival of number three…
• I built my first ever computer from scratch. That’s a high, just for the record.
• I survived an apparent swine flu infection.
• I got my UK drivers licence and we bought a car, which we named “Gazpacho”
• We solved the biggest hedge maze ever with Julian and Shelley
• Mel and Ben popped in to the country for Mel’s brother’s wedding, and stayed a night with us at Hotel BBQ Chicken
• We started Geocaching!
• Hotel BBQ Chicken was disbanded in October, and Kristy and I moved back to Chiswick.

Heads up: Pearl Jam are playing at Hard Rock Calling in London next year! Buy yourself a ticket then let me know that you’re coming so we can meet up!

In my opinion, 2009 was a fantastic year for music. Here’s my top five albums of the year, in no particular order – note that the album may not have been released this year, but perhaps I only discovered it (or at least really listened to it) this year.

As an aside: with most of these albums, I wasn’t particularly impressed with them on the first listen. But usually, that’s a good thing – as long as I don’t completely hate it, I’ll always give it a second go! But, albums that I like on the first listen are often just full of cheap hooks that I grow sick of after three months (can anyone say, “Nickelback”?). With the good ones, it’s only the second or third listen through – when the tunes become a bit familiar, and the lyrics start making sense – that things really start to pick up.

Pearl Jam – Backspacer (Grunge)
This one is a no-brainer – it says “Pearl Jam” on it so it was pretty likely to make the top five, even if I’d never heard it . This is their ninth studio album (!), and it’s unsurprisingly fantastic. It’s only short, but it’s clear that they’ve gone for quality over quantity.

Every song is great, but my personal favourites are Amongst The Waves, Unthought Known, and Force of Nature.

Karnivool – Sound Awake (Progressive Rock)
Hands down, Karnivool have to be one of the most talented bands in Australia. This album is much more progressive than their first, and includes some rather epic tracks, my favourite of which are Deadman (12min 4sec) and Change (10min 47sec).

We were lucky enough to see Karnivool perform in October this year – their songs sound just as good live as they do out of the studio.

Circa Survive – On Letting Go (Indie Rock)
This one falls into the “not released this year” category. It’s definitely not for everyone, and it definitely needs at least three listens; and it’s definitely amazing. There are so many subtleties in the songs that you pick up something new on every play-through.

This album really shines if you listen to it with a pair of decent quality headphones. Kristy got me a set of Denon C751‘s for my Birthday (holy crap, how expensive are they in Oz?!) and they’re perfect.

Rise Against – The Sufferer & The Witness (Post Hardcore)
Again, another album that wasn’t released this year, but I only came across it very recently, thanks to the wonders of Spotify and Amazon’s “Post Hardcore bestsellers list”. No, I’m not making this stuff up.

The closest thing I can compare these guys to is The Empire Strikes First by Bad Religion; fans of Blink 182, Yellowcard, or Finch will find something here to like. Rise Against’s more recent Appeal to Reason album was a very close contender here!

Billy Talent – III (Punk)
Ah, the only Canadian band that never fails to bring a smile to my face. I’ve always loved Billy Talent’s music, and especially their creative, poetic lyrics.

This album has a very similar sound to their previous album (titled II, and yes, their first album is titled I), so it was easy for me to get into. Yes, it’s simple, but it’s very, very good.

Honourable mentions have to go to One Day Remains by Alter Bridge, Golden Rule by Powderfinger, and Brand New Eyes by Paramore. Each of these albums is well worth listening to, but didn’t quite captivate me like the albums above.

How about you – what were your favourite songs/albums from 2009?

What a fantastic year 2008 was! Keeping up with the tradition started by Bender, here’s a look back on the year that was.

Life

Life seems to get busier by the day. Here’s the big ticket items from 2008:

• We farewelled our good friends Ben and Michelle as they travelled their way back home to Australia in February.
• Stacey and Wes got engaged! And then moved to Aberdeen, harsh!
• Lisa popped over from New York for a few days in April, and kept us laughing the whole time she was here.
• In August, we moved out of our Chiswick flat, and joined up with Julian and Shelley to become Team Barbeque Chicken of Putney.
• My brother popped the question to his beautiful girlfriend Susan, and now they too are engaged!
• Jason and Louise visited again! Their friend Craig came along as well, and we took a day trip out to Windsor Castle.
• I joined the 30 club, and we celebrated with a day at the pub.

Travel

We can never get enough travel! Looks like we did a pretty good job of spreading things out over the year though, with a few local trips and lots of international ones too:

• In January, I took a three day boys weekend to Malta with Ben and John.
• We had a few days in New York at the start of our Easter vacation. It was good to be back on the old stomping ground!
• We recovered from New York in Florida: our home away from home.
• Costa Rica with the Cookes! We saw the volcano in Arenal, went zip lining in Monte Verde, and learned to surf in Playa Grande.
• We went to Amsterdam in April to celebrate Aubain and Ingrid’s wedding.
• Kristy and I enjoyed a long weekend in Paris in May.
• In June, we had a weekend in the Cotswolds, and a day trip to Brighton with Julian and Shelley.
• Matt drove us to Seven Sisters in July. Our intention was to go camping, but we ended up coming back home instead.
• We flew up to Scotland to surprise Stacey for her birthday, and we climbed Ben Nevis while we were there.
• We spent three hot summer days in Rome.
• Todd and Shannon, Julian and Shelley, and the two of us spent a glorious week sailing around Croatia.
• I joined the lads from work for Oktoberfest (in Munich, Germany), which I really want to go to again this year!
• Kristy and I had two lovely days in Bath before my 30th Birthday
• We spent a weekend in Wales with a group of Todd and Shannon’s friends, as a surprise for Todd’s 30th birthday.
• Christmas was in Eschborn, Germany, with the entire clan of Zeebs.

Music

Lots of concerts in 2008!

• Kicking the year off right with two concerts in one week in February! Linkin Park and Paramore played at O2 and Brixton, respectively.
• I saw Coheed and Cambria play at Brixton touring off the No World for Tomorrow album.
• Jimmy Eat World also played at Brixton in February.
• KT Tunstall hit up the Hammersmith Apollo in April.
• Nick and I saw The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus play up at Angel in May.
• We saw The Goo Goo Dolls, Powderfinger, Ben Harper, and The Counting Crows at the O2 wireless festival.
• I saw Coheed and Cambria play their Neverender tour in the first week of December – four glorious times in one glorious week!

Miscellaneous

• We hosted two raging parties at our Chiswick house; one for New Year’s, and one for Australia Day.
• Kristy got to drive a bendy bus
• We volunteered to be test dummies for Terminal 5 (which seemingly didn’t help them all that much!)
• I got to play soccer at the Chelsea football stadium, and decided that soccer really isn’t my thing
• I participated in my first ever outdoor running event

Yep, it really was a fantastic year. Here’s to an even better 2009!

Ok, I’m even later with this posting, but here’s a look back at some of the things that kept us busy during 2007.

Living and Working

We had major changes on both of these fronts in 2007!

• We moved out of our cosy 52nd Street Apartment at the end of January, and moved in to an even cosier studio on 2nd Avenue. Though it was much smaller, it had such a cool vibe – I really enjoyed living there!
• After 18 months of service by Kristy, and two-and-a-half years for me, we both finished working at the UN at the beginning of May.
• Our last night in New York was the 9th of June. We flew overnight on the 10th, and landed – jetlagged, tired, and missing one suitcase – in London on the 11th.
• Save for a one week hiatus at Stacey and Wes’ place (whilst they journeyed around Wales), we dossed with Ben and Michelle for a very long eight weeks when we first arrived here. How on earth they put up with us for so long I don’t know! But we will forever be grateful.
• We moved into our first London flat just off the Chiswick High Road in August.
• I took a short contract working for The Lemon Foundation in early July, before starting a permanent role for CQS in August.
• Kristy also started a new job in August, working for Transport For London (TFL), where she has dominated in numerous different roles.

Travel

We still maintain that travelling is one of our top priorities whilst we’re living overseas, and this year we’ve enjoyed some of the best holidays of our lives!

• At the end of February, we headed to London to begin a two week holiday covering Seville and Barcelona in Spain, and then a week of skiing in Andorra.
• In April, I shaved my head before we took a quick trip down to Fort Lauderdale with Jurgen and Sibylle, to visit my cousins – the Cookes.
• We hit Mexico with Ben and Michelle where we enjoyed visiting ruins, swimming at some awesome beaches, and snorkelling through some underground caverns.
• After Mexico, it was straight over to Los Angeles to spend time with Aunt Rosey and check out all the local tourist attractions. Following that, we took a three day road trip, driving from LA up to San Francisco, where we spent another seven days (and decided it was about three days too many).
• We took a crazy overnight drive to Paris with John, Kirsty, and Todd not long after we arrived in London.
• At the end of August, we spent three lovely days in Prague with Ben and Michelle, Ben’s Mum Wendy, and Gumby.
• In September, we snuck back into Australia primarily to attend Jason and Louise’s wedding. Afterwards we headed up to Brisbane for some precious catch up time with family, friends, and puppies.
• On the way back to the UK, I did two solo nights in Hong Kong where I got to spend a day with my old friend John, as well as shop up a storm!
• We took a few day trips with Mom and Dad – one to Dover Castle, another to Oxford.
• In November, we spent a lovely weekend out in the quiet English countryside with Team BaM.
• We enjoyed possibly our best Christmas ever with a week of skiing in France. Many thanks to Team BaM, Team Dahl, and Kirstin for such an awesome holiday!

Visitors

With all our movements this year, our visitor count has certainly been lower than previous years, but that doesn’t mean we enjoyed their company any less!

• John and Kirstin visited us for four days in January – the first time they’d even met us! They were the last visitors to stay with us at our 52nd Street apartment.
• Ben and Michelle became our last ever New York visitors coming over for a quick shopping spree before our trip to Mexico in May. Oh – and Kristy didn’t know they were coming!
• Jason and Louise were our first international visitors, spending a week in London with us on the tail end of their honeymoon. During their stay we hired a car and went to the Cotswolds and Stonehenge.
• Mom and Dad came to stay! Actually they had stayed in our place whilst we were in Australia, but then they came back for two weeks, even staying during my birthday! It was awesome to have my parents around – the place has never looked tidier!

Miscellaneous

• We survived our coldest day ever in February – base temperature -12C, or -22C with wind chill!
• My razr was stolen from my locker at the gym so I upgraded to a Nokia E65.
• I was officially dubbed not a terrorist by a metro police inspector at Victoria underground station.
• gerrod.com hit the the 1,000 story mark and the Statistics page was born.

Since it’s almost the end of the year, here’s our year in review, Stickfly.com style.

Travel

Travelling is the number one activity of choice for us at the moment, so no matter how much we do, it’s never enough. We had some amazing trips this year, including:

• A visit to London to surprise Ben and Michelle (and boy were they surprised!).
• A one day trip to Washington for work (gerrod only).
• A very last minute weekend trip to Chicago.
• Our first visit back home since we moved to New York, which included a three day stint in Sydney and some time on the Gold Coast.
• Houseboating with the Cookes in Florida (gerrod only).
• Atlantic City for a weekend (which was more than enough).
• A trip to Jamaica to get in touch with Gerrod’s heritage, followed by some time in the Florida Keys (staying in Key West and then Duck Key).
• gerrodfest 2006 in Las Vegas, where I was rather surprised to turn around and see my brother. While we were there, we took a spectacular helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon.

Visitors

We love having visitors, and this year we had a bundle of them.

• Kristy and Jane were our first visitors, back in April.
• Just after we got back from Australia, Jason and Kellie popped in for a visit at the tail end of their US travels. One of the best parts of their visit was that they introduced us to the wonderful Damien and Lisa, who we now try to catch up with as often as possible.
• Bender paid his second visit to New York, and he and I took a helicopter ride around the city.
• Lou and Steve came to party with us – especially Lou who celebrated her birthday while she was here.
• Kristy’s parents also clocked up their second New York stint this year in September.
• Brother Jason flew to New York for his second trip, after surprising me in Vegas.
• Our little friend Jo paid us a visit on a break from her India adventures.
• Kristy Tailford came for her third New York stint – twice in one year!
• Karl and Caroline arrived just after Christmas

Things to do

Some of the activities that we got up to this year -

• Skiing in Vermont and New Jersey.
• We discovered spin classes and burned off a bundle of calories.
• White water rafting with Damien and Lisa, Simon and Lauren.
• We went and saw one day of the US Open out in Flushing, Queens.
• Ben and I saw Muse play at the Hammerstein Ballroom in August.
• We thoroughly enjoyed seeing James Blunt play at Radio City.
• We finally saw our first Radio City Christmas Show to gear us up for the silly season.

Highlights and lowlights

• High: Witnessing Ben and Michelle get married in May.
• High: In July, our friends Jason and Louise announced that they were engaged!
• High: In February, we witnessed the biggest blizzard on record in New York; Low: I slipped over and injured my shoulder, bad enough that it still hasn’t fully healed.
• Low: I realised I was unlucky after practically all of my gadgets broke.
• High: We finally got to meet up with Cam and Meghan after being “blogging buddies” for almost 2 years.
• Low: I rolled my ankle rather badly during a game of indoor soccer.
• High: Kristy passed first level Spanish, and can now say way more phrases than me (but I can still order coffee or beer, and that’s all that matters).

Miscellaneous

• I replaced the light bulbs in our kitchen with some Durham compliant super-brights.
• We bought an XBox 360 and now I have to drag Kristy away from it practically every night.
• We got a new mattress and a new pillow top (from Natalie), and started enjoying better quality sleep.
• After 18 months in New York, I finally had my first real celebrity spotting (it was Colin Farrell).
• Gerrod got to shake hands with Al Gore after seeing him present An Inconvenient Truth at the UN.

Of course our year was filled with a heap more activities than what I could list here, but I guess that’s what the rest of the blog is for. Here’s looking forward to a wicked 2007!

After walking around the city doing some shopping on Sunday, wife and I ended up at the Rockefeller Center, which had been invaded by tourists. Walking out the door at Brookstone was like trying to mosh through a crowd at Big Day Out.

People were basically just hanging around to take photos of the Rockefeller Christmas tree (which is still standing), or to line up to go ice skating. (Louise skated there on Christmas day and said that not only was it overpriced, but the skates looked like they had been around since the rink first opened in 1936). Admittedly, the whole plaza is beautiful, and very photogenic. After trying for a few minutes to get a good shot of the tree, we decided the crowd was too overwhelming, so we left.

We figured that the throng should have abated by about 10 PM, but when we returned the place was still thick with people! But we could tell that it was starting to thin out, so we hung around and managed to take some awesome photos. It meant another late night to bed, but since yesterday was a public holiday, it was all worth it.

Read on to see our summary of June – December of 2005.

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Welcome to 2006 everybody! An especially big welcome to baby Gabrielle Morgan-Rattey, born on New Year’s Day to proud parents (and wonderful friends) Steve and Allie! Weighing in at 7 pounds 6, she arrived at 10:26 AM, and easily takes the prize for first baby of the year!

We welcomed the New Year in on the roof of Charles and Amanda’s Brooklyn apartment. It was quite overcast and foggy, which made the skyline very atmospheric.

Taking up the stickfly.com challenge, we’ve made a list of some of the things that happened in 2005. Boy what a list! Our lives look much more exciting when they’re in point form, with lots of travel, visitors, and new toys keeping us busy. Keep reading to see our summary of 2005.

(Note: This covers January – June; July – December will come tomorrow).

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