hello twenty-ten . . .

We celebrated New Year's Eve like we always do . . . at my aunt and uncle Mark and Tammy's house. I have to say . . . this year was the most rockin' that party has been in a long time. Woo hoo!

Jen always looks festive . . . Grace and the 40 pound chocolate Santa from Haggen's . . . more about him in a separate post later. :)I came around the corner and Grace was helping herself to some taco dip . . . yep, she's definitely my daughter. The stairs provided lots of entertainment . . .Tommy going downstairs to play Wii . . . I love how Grace thinks she is playing right along with them . . . Dina giving us the 5 minute warning with her "bald" blower . . . Max is ready for midnight!Auntie Tam getting the champagne ready . . . HAPPY NEW YEAR!My last picture of the year was of my sweet girl wearing her party hat and ringing in the new decade . . . she partied right up until midnight and crashed on the way home. New Year's Day we headed out to Birch Bay for the JONES Polar Bear swim . . . we didn't get there early enough to enjoy all the brandy-drinking merriment in the condo before the dip. We headed straight to the water . . .

Dad giving the official countdown . . .

There they go . . . all 49 of them . . .

Jake and Uncle Tom DOUBLE DIPPING! Derrik and Tom "rescuing" Maria . . .

Tom was back with another clever shirt this year . . . about 3 years ago he and Alison (who has never gone in before) made a pact for 2010 . . . "2010, _ _ _ _ it, just go in". Tom knew Zoop wouldn't live up to her end of the deal so he publicly outed her . . .

Nope . . . I don't go in! For the record: I did go in one time in 2002.

I lost count of what number dip this was . . . 4 or 5 maybe?

Tom and I had a little miscommunication about whether he was going to take Grace swimming afterwards or not . . . luckily Jen had an extra swim diaper and Grandma was willing to swim with her . . . she LOVED it.

JUMP!

These two can stir up a lot of trouble . . .

Grace loved meeting brand new, sweet baby Madeline . . .

Remember earlier when I said "there they go . . . all 49 of them". Well, 49 just isn't a good number for my Uncle Tom and he was determined to make it 50. Did I volunteer to go in? No, no, hell no . . . but my sweet Gracie girl . . . why not? :)

After swimming and eating we headed back out to the water and Grace dipped her toes in so she could be counted as the 50th swimmer . . .

The big raindrop on my lens covering her head is nice, huh?

Tom dipped her again just to make sure it counted . . . Please don't think less of me as a mother because I subjected my 18 month old to this . . . look . . . she LOVED it!

We went home and had a big n-a-p and then headed to Russ and Angie's for more food and fun . . . Allie painting Grace's nails clear . . .

Our presence at the party was short lived . . . shortly after this picture Grace completely melted down so we headed home.

2009 has been a year where God has shown me His love, grace and faithfulness over and over and over again . . . thanks for the memories 2009 . . . you will be missed, but can't wait to see was 2010 has in store (especially meeting baby D #2!)