It has been a busy and productive day. I love days like today--we started sorting Joey's stuff and she gave up her play dishes and play food, some puzzles, a bunch of old toys and we sorted through her dress up clothes and made a bag of goodies for little Julia. It was really great and I was glad to see her willingly give up so many things--usually you can't pry old toys out of her hands for anything. She's so attached to her things--she just knows that as soon as she lets it go, she'll absolutely have to play with it again. This time she just tossed things out. It was great!

We finished up the bed, for the most part. We have it installed it in Joey's room and have to put the finishing touches on it--the shelves above her desk, a drawer--stuff like that. Oh, that and the most important thing: attached the ladder securely. Very key.

I also put an oil stain/finish on the mini-armoire for Joey's room. This is going to look so great in there! I can't wait to get it all put together. Her room will be so cute and so different from what it is now.

Gwen and her daughter, the Contrary Chloe, came over today to exchange gifts. This was the first time in ages--I can't remember when--that she (the Contrary Chloe) was pleasant to be around. Usually she's so obstinate and unpleasant ("I hate that" "I don't want to do that" "I just want to play by myself") that I'm usually not keen to arrange get togethers with her--in fact, I try to keep our gatherings that involve Chloe to a minimum--Christmas, her birthday and if that's all, I'm ok with that. But yesterday, she was pleasant and chatty and it was a nice visit. My mouth is still agog.

And now is the time in Lobotomy Land where we look over the past year. Barring national events, 2001 was a pretty good year for me. Not because anything phenomenal happened but because I did a lot of introspection and made some big decisions for my future and received some outside recognition of my accomplishments. I did a lot of travel--logged almost 20,000 miles in my travels this year. That's a personal high. I learned a lot, too, school-wise and I finally got to take my long-awaited photography class and learned that I'm a pretty decent photographer. All good.

I've been trying to think of the down side to 2001, personally, and I really can't except that I did little to achieve my weight loss goals. I started off ok in the spring but got derailed on our 3 week vacation and never really got back on track.

I was trying to think of my goals for 2002 but could only come up with a couple so I'll have to spend some time thinking tomorrow and write them up for my first 2002 entry.

And now I have to go don my pajamas. It's time to head over to Stacey's Pajama Fondue party. Mmmm....fondue.

--L