Wordless Wednesday- A snowy morning

Another year gone by

The end of 2010 is here- and is just me, or does it seem like it still should be about June??? This year has flown by.

When I look back over 2010, there are some things that stand out:

February- SNOW, SNOW, and more SNOW! We had over 70" of snow- much of it at the same time. Luckily, for the second half of this blizzard, I was in sunny (although cold) Florida enjoying the Disney Social Media Moms conference (see my posts on that here, here, and here).

May- We spent a wonderful weekend in New York City.

June- We were busy in June! We went to our first NASCAR race in Pocono and had an amazing experience (check it out here). We then started a two week swing along the West Coast visiting family. Matthew and Mike both had the chance to meet my grandmother who they had never met before. I was especially grateful for this after she had open heart surgery later in the summer that she never recovered from. We spent a couple wonderful days in San Francisco and then Disneyland.

August- We headed to Disney World for 8 wonderful days where we got to meet many of our friends and had a wonderful vacation.

September- We had 20+ people come to our house for a wonderful, relaxing, and fun Labor Day weekend. That weekend holds many great memories!

October- #EpicOctober2010. Need I say more?

December- We took another Disney trip and got to see many of our great friends again. My parents came for a visit over Christmas and we had a great time. Oh, and I won this little contest.

But for me, what stands out the most in 2010 is friendship. I had to say goodbye to some friends, but I gained so many more. I have met so many wonderful people on-line that I am lucky to call my friends. I may not have met these people in person, but that doesn't mean they aren't my friends. We all know that I don't think we have to have met in person to become friends! (see my thoughts on that here!) I thank you all for your friendship.

But, I was truly blessed with several wonderful, special friends. As one of these friends said, these are my pocket friends. These friends don't live near me, but they are always close by my heart. Somehow, we came together and developed a special bond. They are the people that I want to call first when I have good news. And they are the people that I want to call first when I need a shoulder to cry on. They live in my phone, and are never farther apart than a phone call. They are always in my thoughts, and there aren't enough words to truly explain how much they mean to me. I would say thank you to all of you, but it just doesn't seem like enough.

So- as we look forward in 2011, I hope each and everyone of you has a wonderful and magical year. I hope it opens doors that leads you down the path of happiness and contentment.

What a Christmas!

First and foremost, let me wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I hope that you were able to spend the day with your loved ones and had a wonderful and relaxing day.

I've had quite the Christmas day. We were fortunate enough to have my parents here to celebrate with us. We had a very relaxing and wonderful day opening our presents. I got a great Mickey suitcase and a Disney watch. My dad got an iPad, and both my mom and my son got iTouches. We spent the afternoon giving the technologically challenged (meaning my mother) a lesson in using her iTouch. I spent the afternoon relaxing and chatting with friends on Twitter. And then...

About 2:55 this afternoon, I saw a tweet reminding everyone that Denny Hamlin (a NASCAR driver for all you non-NASCAR people) was doing a Christmas contest giveaway. He would be doing a trivia contest, and the winner would get airfare, 3 nights hotel, and spending money to any destination in the continental United States. All you had to do was be the 11th person with the correct answer. The question he posed was this

"Q: If you received every gift in the song "12 days of Christmas" how many presents would you have????"

I quickly tweeted my answer along with the required hashtag #11in11. I waited a few minutes but then had to go back to my Lego building duties with my son. I came back a few minutes later to see that my Twitter timeline had exploded with tweets to me- I had won the contest! I was floored! I was beyond EXCITED! I couldn't believe that I had won!!!!

My husband and I started talking about where we go. We quickly decided we wanted to go to a NASCAR race. Then, we started discussing which one. We talked about Daytona and the Coke 600. But we are in Florida several times and year, and we could drive to Charlotte. We wanted to really make this a special trip and go somewhere we would't go on our own. So we decided to go to the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis.

Needless to say, this has been a Christmas that I won't forget. Thank you to my family for the great day and all the wonderful gifts. And thank you to Denny Hamlin for his generosity and the amazing contest.

Oh- and the correct answer was 364 presents :)