HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Here's my Resolution for 2009 (you may recognize it):

To be strong, so nothing can disturb my peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person I meet.
To make all my friends feel there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.
To think only the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all time and give every living creature I meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of myself that I have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
...and don't forget, lose some weight ;)

Unlike a majority of my friends and family, I had a happy 2008 and have absolutely no complaints. In 2009, I'm hoping for a better year for my friends and family.

Here are a few pics from last weekend with my brother and niece at Christmas in the Park in Downtown San Jose and their first visit to the new Hooters in Campbell, CA:

And here are a few pics from today with Dave in Santa Cruz, CA:

Don't forget to check out Dave's portfolio at DaveThomasPhoto.com

I've been really busy with the holidays this year and have been spending way too much time on a social networking site, called Facebook. Facebook.com is a social networking environment, which reflects our real identities, and the relationships and information we care about. It's amazing how many old and dear friends I've caught up with on Facebook and it's also a great way to keep in touch with family, who live a few miles away. I invite you to join at:
Cheri's Facebook site
In the meantime, Dave has been building his Photography portfolio website. Check it out at DaveThomasPhoto.com. Here are a few pics from our December photo shoots:

This month I celebrated the holiday season by going to the Los Gatos Christmas Parade with my friends; Katie, Amanda & Todd and by going to the Santa Clara Ballet Company presentation of the Nutcracker with Dave's stepmom, Sue.
Here are a couple of pics:

I'm very excited about going down to LA to be a Seatfiller at the 35th Peoples Choice Awards , the evening of Wednesday, January 7th on CBS with my friend, Trisha. I'm hoping to be in the front few rows of the show, so be sure and look for me in the audience. Here are the nominees:
People's Choice Awards Nominations 2009
Last, but not least...here are some wonderful memories with my family last weekend at my brother's house, where we celebrated the holiday season by exchanging presents and enjoying quality time together:

We are planning to visit Dave's mom and family near Seattle, WA for Christmas. Although at this moment our plans are Weather permitting. If we stay in town, we plan to Volunteer to help people in need this holiday season! Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and very Happy Holiday season!

For Thanksgiving this year, Dave and I drove up to Fairfield to pick up my brother and niece, then we all traveled up to our Parent's house in Redding to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Hughes family. This was a very Thankful year for me and I was thrilled to be spending this holiday with the ones I love.

During our visit to Redding, my mom, niece (Emily) and husband, Dave, decided to walk a few blocks to the local park. As we walked along the sidewalk, Emily noticed a street sign, which she almost ran into without looking, and on the street sign there was a painted symbol. She asked me what the symbol was and I said it's a Peace sign. Emily looked at me...confused? She said, “What's Peace mean?” Wow, for a moment...I smiled. My 7 yr. old niece asked ME what Peace is. I knew I must think quick. Peace is important to me and I personally feel our Earth would be a wonderful place to live, if peace were more abundant in the world today. Peace is what I remember feeling when I was her age. Now, how do I explain this to her? I thought for a moment and said, “peace is harmony, it's happiness, it's being nice to everyone you meet”. She smiled and looked as if she understood. Within minutes a huge 4x4 truck with a very loud engine drove into the parking lot of the Park. They stopped abruptly to meet their friends, who were enjoying crashing their remote control cars into each other. A man jumped out of his truck and reached out his hand to (what appeared to be) his friend and said, “hey dude, what's up?”. There was a moment of silence, then Emily looked back at me and said, “that's Peace, right Auntie Cheri?”. I smiled and said, “Yes, Emily that's Peace.” What a wonderful life lesson and one I will never forget...
Here are some pics from our Thanksgiving:

I'm so happy it's December!! I have plans to visit all of our immediate family members over the next 3 weeks and will do my best to upload pics and post stories. Hope all of you are enjoying the holiday season :)