the new hobby

Rudi got me (actually us) a violin for Christmas and it arrived in the mail today. We were like two kids squabbling over a Christmas present when we got home with it today: "You're not opening the box fast enough," "you're gonna break it, careful," and "it's my turn to play with it now, you've had it for a long time!"
I know this is one of the more challenging hobbies, but we thought a lot about it and decided to go for it, knowing we have the rest of our lives to work on it.
Here is why I decided on violin:
I took piano lessons for 8 years as a child/teenager but never got good at reading music. I would do most everything by memorization after struggling through reading a piece multiple times. So I quit piano in high school and my skills quickly atrophied, since I wasn't able to just pick up some sheet music and play. So why not go back to piano? Well, it isn't very portable. I would love to have an instrument that I can take where I go, and even into different rooms in the house (this will be absolutely necessary as a beginning violinist!!) The other thing about piano is that I was always worse at reading bass clef than treble clef, and reading both at the same time was extremely hard for me as a poor sight-reader. With violin, almost all the music is treble clef, the one I am better at reading anyway.
Now, my dad has always encouraged me to play guitar for its relaxing and portable qualities. I agree on those qualities, but the thing with guitar is that it is often not used to play classical music. I realized over the past few years that what makes my little musical heart flutter are classical pieces, and I think that is what I'd have the most fun playing.
All this is not to mention that I love the sound of string instruments, and I can't wait to play well so that I can make beautiful sounds (hopefully someday).
We are going to have a friend come over and help us set up the violin, since we know almost nothing about it. Rudi will teach her guitar in exchange!
Well, wish me luck on this. I have no excuse not to be playing an instrument since my family and extended families almost universally have music talent and since I was privileged enough to receive music lessons as a child.