December 2009

Since today is apparently catch-up day for me, I figured I would just sum up all of December 2009 with you at once. As I am sure several of you would agree, 2009 was a year to remember. For Sean and I it was our first year of marriage, but it was also probably the most trying year of our lives. Sean worked so hard and was on the road all the time. I worked extremely hard as well; I trained four new employees and two interns, hosted a successful FDA inspection, and finished the painstaking process of submitting for an industry accreditation. There were may 70-90 hour weeks, lots of travel, and lots of meal missed with my husband and friends. So it was very nice to have a few hours celebrating a productive year for Compass IRB at our holiday party. Our President/CEO treated all of us to VERY generous door prizes for all the fun and games and we got to bring a date this year.

As I said before, I work hard. Lucky for me I have a great team supporting me ... including the lovely Emily and Susie. They are two of our first employees and they have become very dear friends and great dog-sitters!

I love these girls! This year at work was also so busy at my office and slow at the Brookshire house while Sean was out of work most of the summer, that Sean actually came into the office and helped quite a bit. So it just seemed so right to bring him to the company Christmas party (well that and he's my insanely handsome husband). And as much as I dislike game playing, he's a great Pyramid partner and "how many Hershey's kisses are in the jar" guesser! Thanks to his mad skills, we left the Christmas party with a new 42" flat screen HD Plasma T.V. Oh yeah!

This year, Sean was home enough to actually enjoy our Christmas tree and to even hang Christmas lights on the house. Which let me tell you, were beautiful and perfect! He even drew a schematic to ensure that every inch of the house was glorious and festive. None of my pictures did it justice, but it was gorgeous and I foresee a new obsession brewing in him. Love it!

Although it didn't look very promising for a while, we managed to make it to my parents for my favorite day of the year, Christmas Eve! As always, it was pure love ... great people, great food, and a great time!

There's nothing like being at my parents' house at Christmastime! It's been really nice to watch the family grow with Sean's family joining us now! It's so fun having Taylor around since I didn't have a sister growing up ... we spoiled her this year! It was just so joyful to watch her 16-year-old self let down her cool and get genuinely excited about Christmas gifts from her big brother (and sister)!

I hope you all had a great holiday season! We were so excited to be blessed enough to spend another Christmas with the people we love most.

Oh, I almost forgot, the best part of 2009! Sean and I met a man this year that had been dealt quite a rough hand this year; this man is a coworker of Sean's. Due to the economy, this man had lost his job (forcing him to take a severe pay cut), his family home and his cars. If that wasn't enough, his wife is battling brain cancer that has proven thus far to be treatment resistant and was going to be unable to give his 9-year-old daughter Christmas. Sean talked to me several times about how he wished he could do something and how awful he felt for his new friend. So I decided to take matters into my own hands, and reached out to my friends, family, colleagues and coworkers. I was met with some of the most overwhelming generosity that I have experienced in my lifetime. Thanks to the beautiful hearts of the people I have been blessed enough to know, Sean and I were able to provide this man and his family with nearly $500 in cash, $800 in gift cards, new tires for the family's car, a new bike for the little girl, lots of new clothes and toys for her as well and boxes and boxes and boxes of food for the family! It was the most fulfilling gift I have ever given! So thank you so much to all of you that helped make it possible! That outpouring of goodness and love was exactly what Sean and I needed to end a trying year in an encouraging and optimistic way. We love our family and friends; they never fail to show us how blessed and fortunate we are!