News for the New Year

I'm sitting down and I'm doing it. I'm writing this blog post.

I know it's been too long since our last post, and I apologize for that. With the fast pace of the holidays and then getting back into a new semester, I just haven't been able to carve out the time. But so much for my tiny violin and my very sad song. I'm carving out the time now, so here's the news.

Things have been fine as frog hair in the Neely home. Granted, there remain a number of logistics to figure out with our upcoming move, and Kendall and I are both staying busy.

I'm trying to tidy up this dissertation and get out of Dodge. I have a defense date set for early April, so at least I can start to see the finish line.

Kendall's work keeps her hopping with both managerial and technical responsibilities. Her latest project has been a complete inventory of all the chemicals in her department, which is no small task. (Imagine counting all the money in the U.S. Mint one dime at a time.) She was finally able to work on it after she finished revising all the constantly-changing policies and procedures.

But enough about the adults, right? I know why you guys really visit this blog. Our beautiful girl is doing just splendidly.

However, I received some rather alarming news a couple of weeks ago when I dropped her off at daycare. Apparently, Eden has a boyfriend. At first, the teacher said they were good friends and liked to hang out and eat their snacks together. Okay, no problem there. But then the teacher told me that on Eden's first day, she wouldn't stop kissing this little boy!

What's a dad to do?! I mean, only a year old and she's already chasing the boys and kissing them! I thought about having a little sit-down talk with her, but Eden can't even sit down long enough to finish her ABC book most of the time, so I thought it would really just be an exercise in futility.

The holidays went very well for us all. We went to Tampa to see family. Eden thoroughly enjoyed her first Christmas and her first birthday. She got the hang of the paper-tearing after a few tries. She also discovered that she loves boxes; that is, she loves getting in them.

She would tear the paper off a present, we would help her open the box, she would promptly pull the gift out of the box, throw it on the floor, and get inside the box. Next year, we're just going to wrap some empty boxes and save some money!

On Christmas Eve we went to church with Kendall's parents and then enjoyed the annual tradition of watching "Christmas Vacation." We stayed there and did Christmas morning at their house, then we traveled over to my parents' for the annual Christmas dinner. There were 20 people at my parents' house this year - the most they've ever had.

The next day, we woke up and went back over to Kendall's parents' for Eden's first birthday party. Almost everyone who was at Christmas dinner came over for the birthday party too. It's really nice to have an extended family that all gets along.

Eden had the ceremonial "smash cake" in her high-chair. However, much to everyone's surprise, it was the cleanest cake smash in baby history, we think. We actually had to encourage her to make a mess. All I can think is that she was trying to convince everyone that she's not really a messy eater. Yeah, right!

Nonetheless, everyone was very impressed with her decorum and how ladylike she was. Thank you to everyone who came to the party. We are so grateful that you all helped us make that time so special.

Eden continues to bless and impress us everyday. Some of her favorite activities include: taking spices from the pantry and arranging them on the floor, taking her hard plastic toys and banging them on the doors, hugging Henry, patting Henry, smacking Henry, bringing you a book to read to her, pulling Tupperware from the cabinet, pulling all the toys out of her toybox, and dancing to the animal train song.

I suppose I could write all day, but I guess that covers the highlights. That's the news for now. We'll keep you posted (sooner or later, I promise).