2009 can suck it.

happy new year!

i'm so happy to kick shitty ass '09 out the door and usher in 2010, which we're all hoping will be much brighter and happier. hell, with as much crap as we faced in the last year, anything's an improvement. of course, operation downsize was the dark shadow that loomed over us all year long. talk about a bummer.

but that's not to say that it was ALL bad. with as much love as the house of wan has in it, how could there not be lots of fun, fantastic memories to look back on?

we kicked off the year with a campout on colorado boulevard (in front of the tiffany store, no less, because we're classy like that) for the rose parade.

january took us down to san diego for a sea world weekend with the ILs.

operation downsize began in earnest with our move into the shoebox we're still in. it was a total pain in the ass, as we adjusted to living in much smaller quarters with a whole lot less stuff, having put most of it into storage. but there were benefits, too - it brought us closer together, gave us an appreciation for what we'd taken for granted for so long, and of course, it gave me back my love of cooking and baking.

i mean, come on - who could forget my discovery of the greatest thing on earth: tater tot casserole??

my quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie began.

the bean turned supermodel for a photo shoot with me for the nest magazine. we submitted a handful of shots, and they selected this one:

and published it.

despite the severe lack of counter space and the fact that most of my best cooking gear was squirreled away into boxes, far out of my reach, i managed to turn out some pretty delicious grub. i had a blast in the kitchen, testing out recipes galore night after night.

and then, the unthinkable happened: the teen decided to go vegetarian.

this threw quite an interesting twist in our dinners when she was home, but i embraced the challenge and put out a call to everyone i knew for their best meatless recipes.

the hub turned 30, and we celebrated it with dinner at roy's and a fun BBQ at the grandparents'.

downsizing continued as we traded the big ol' honking X5 for the pri-YES!

we celebrated the teen's birthday by getting her cast off (from a sprained ankle), another BBQ at the grandparents', and a fun dinner at a celeb-owned restaurant in hollywood with BFF.

we took advantage of some super duper discounted rooms at the bonaventure hotel in downtown l.a. - not just once, but two weekends in a row!

i baked. a lot.

then there was the breadmaking bonanza.

oh, and i went back to work part-time. yay.

the teen had her 8th grade promotion (as did BFF) and braced themselves for their new status as high school freshmen.

i got to visit the pantages theater twice to see fun shows - once with the teen, and again with some fabulous bitches.

of course, summer wasn't complete without a couple of jonas brothers concerts, including an afterparty at nokia live that brought us closer to the boys than we'd ever been before.

we even managed to snag tickets to this year's teen choice awards, where we were under the same roof as those brothers, the entire cast of "twilight," and tons of other teenybopper icons.

i signed up for and completed a bunch of mystery shopping assignments. during one of them, i fell in love with these awesome shit-kickin' cowboy boots. yes, i'm serious - i loved these things.

i attended an awesome bacon-themed event with some fantastic ladies that kicked off baconpalooza '09.

it inspired me to try out a zillion bacon recipes: bacon caramel, bacon toffee, bacon cinnamon rolls, chocolate-covered bacon, candied bacon ice cream, and more.

there were other fun GTGs with my friends, too. they were woefully few and far-between this year, but i hope we'll hang out more often in 2010.

i joined the junior league!

i helped plan and then totally had a blast at my 20th high school reunion.

my brother and o got married.

i added my own special touch to thanksgiving dinner:

baked a hellacious amount of cookies:

and the bean blossomed from a sweet baby into a full-fledged toddler.

of course, there was the wan-niversary twirl.

oh, and hey - remember the boots? santa left 'em for me under the christmas tree. whee!

okay, okay. maybe 2009 wasn't all that bad. or, at least, there were just as many good parts (if not more) than the shitty ones. perusing through posts and pictures from the last 12 months sure helped put that into perspective.

but still - YAY for 2010! with all that good and bad stuff jammed into 2009, there's gotta be even more fun and games in store for us in the new year.

fingers are crossed.