As we say goodbye to 2008, we want to take a moment to look back at the year that was, as described through the Greg and Selena blog:

Top Six things about 2008

6. We finally moved out

Actually neither of us has lived in our parent’s homes for years, but a lot of our stuff continued to reside there until this spring. In April, Selena’s Dad finally convinced Selena to move 20 boxes of Happy Meal toys, Cabbage Patch Kids and Brandan Walsh pillows out of his house and into ours. Selena spent two weeks going through it all and finally getting it all put away. Greg mocked her all the while, only to get his when, as part of a Mother’s Day visit, he brought home from Delaware a full car load of Nintendo Power magazines, baseball cards and Jessica Rabbit cardboard cutouts. As of now, it’s all in storage and both parents houses are cleared out.

The top comment came from Stef:

So, Greg, what was the occasion when you got yourself a cut-out Jessica Rabbit? Did she adorn the room of teenage Greg for all those years???

5. We watched too much TV

Again. So much so, that we scooped the preview poster for Season Five of LOST. (Hahaha. That became our only Digg’d/Mixx’d blog post). If there was one reoccurring theme on the blog this year, it was that Selena loves Gossip Girl, there were at least four posts about her addiction to the teen drama. Speaking of teen drama, Greg explained Twilight, but that’s a movie, and we didn’t go to many of them. Instead, we taxed our Tivo, watching so much TV that we held a private draft of who would get which TV channels if we were forced to choose. We also started a bracketology (that we didn’t see through to fruition) of who best character on TV is – of course Selena suggest Gossip Girl’s Chuck Bass.

The best comment was from Kitty agreeing with Selena:

I agree with Selena’s points on Chuck Bass wholeheartedly. I don’t even think we’ve seen the half of his character yet, he hasn’t realized his full potential as a character yet – it’s all the more intriguing!!

4. We did some good eatin’

We are not exactly on the same page when it comes to blogging about food. Greg’s (loosely) qualifying posts include leaving Chinese food on the Metro and spilling coffee into the ice machine. Meanwhile, Selena, who takes food a lot more seriously, picked up where she left off last year, converting more foods into cupcake form, by writing in great length about all the meals we ate on our European tour, in fact, she photographed every meal. She broadcast her entire Thanksgiving menu, which was extensive, and even gave away the secret to Thanksgiving leftovers. Selena also gave a complete detail of the food and wine we tasted on the surprise birthday weekend in Virginia Wine Country.

The best comment was from Kitty again:

One of your Sponsored Links is showing up: Wine Coolers on Sale! How LAME is it, that I got very excited thinking this meant those totally 90’s girly beverages… when, in fact, it meant bags for storing and keeping wine cool??

3. We lost some weight, (well sorta)

Probably because of all those good eatin’, we had to focus on weight loss, which happened when Selena invoked a Biggest Loser challenge in the house. Each week we would take to the scale and determine who lost the most weight and the other person would be saddled with a new chore of the winner’s choosing. The competition became fierce as we both fought to avoid having to do the punishment chores. In the end Greg came away with more victories, but mostly due to a flaw in the scoring system.

The best comment was double-edged from Dancer in DC:

Congratulations, Greg! You have proven the master at losing.
Wait – that doesn’t sound right…

2. We tried new things

2008 was a year for trying new things.

Selena returned to camping for the first time in a long time, once she got Greg to agree on getting an absurdly large tent. The camping was the lodging for a weekend trip to West Virginia to try water water rafting for the first time. We went up to Class 4, pretty exciting times on the river.

Selena also tried sharing Greg’s favorite exercise, running, by joining him in the Rockville five mile race. At the end of the race they gave you two beers, and Selena ran as though someone was chasing her.

Selena also got wind for a new packing system from her friend Alex, the basic concept is everything is individually wrapped in Ziploc bags. We tried it and loved it. It proved a very effective system and indispensable in preparing for the European vacation.

Finally, Selena got back to crafting when she got involved in an Ornament swap, where she made Felt Christmas Cupcake ornaments.

The best comment was from Bill in regard to the oversize tent:

Sounds like a tent from the Harry Potter books…

1. We traveled all over

At this time last year as we were saying goodbye to 2007, Selena and I decided ’08 would be the year of travel.

• We started out well in the first month with visits to the mountains and to Florida
• In March we sipped our way around Virginia wine country
• In the mid-summer we took a camping weekend in Western PA that included White Water rafting in West Virginia.
• Shortly thereafter we took a long weekend road trip up to Boston, Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard with our new mascot, because Greg had never been to New England.
• In August, we took a low key relaxing week at the beach with the Robleto family
• A few weeks later we went on the crown jewel of our year of travel. Our two week European tour took us to England, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France.
• And to round out the year, we are making a trip to Egypt to visit the pyramids and practice a little karate.

The best comment was from Dancer in DC:

What a wonderful trip you had! Sounds like a blast. I’m jealous.

And that, in a blog post, was 2008. Thank you for reading our blog this past year, and we hope you will be back for more insights, stories, and discoveries of what’s in store for Selena and Greg in 2009.

Happy New Year!