Happy New Year!

E-mail from Robert:
"Last time I was here is was the 30 rounds of 120mm mortar illumination rounds that 2-70 AR shot just 75 yards from our building that nearly gave us all collective heart attacks....yeah, they didn't tell us about it beforehand. Took about 15 rounds before we realized they weren't shooting AT us.

This year it was the 2 x F-16s that flew over at midnight at what felt like breaking the sound barrier at 500 feet."

Last time he was there, I enjoyed the Music City Bowl in Nashville with some Auburn friends while my dad and grandparents kept baby Gabby. We went to a bar near the stadium after the game for something to eat and a beer and toasted "Happy New Year" on Baghdad time (3pm in Nashville). Then I went back to my grandparents and was very asleep at midnight. No staying awake when there is a baby to take care of.

This year, it's not yet midnight in Washington and I hope to be sleeping by midnight since I have to be up by 8 for the Auburn game. And I will probably be up earlier. We wished Daddy a Happy New Year at 1 PM and had dinner with our neighbors. I missed seeing the ball drop (9 PM here) because I was putting the kids to bed. Hoping for no F-16s flying over at midnight here.

Since everyone else is talking about what they were doing at the beginning of the decade, I will add that for good measure. Robert and I rang in 2000 dancing at a resort in Tunisia in North Africa. We didn't worry too much that the computers would go nuts and we wouldn't be able to fly back to Germany. We spent a week there relaxing and seeing the Sahara Desert, Atlas Mountains, and Rommel's old territory. Maybe I'll dig up a picture...

Anyway, hope everyone has a Happy New Year. I'm counting on 2010 being better than 2009.