Friday Night Fish Fry

 

Another Chance To Get It Right

Last night we were making plans to spend the next NYE in somewhere like Vegas with our friends.  This morning I was thinking that I was NOT thinking.  It is always nice to wake up at home New Years Day.  Safe.  Healthy.  Brain functioning clearly.  But who knows.  Maybe one more grand NYE blowout with millions of people.

Toonces and I rang this one in quietly.  Or actually loudly for 2 people with just dogs and cats in the house.  His Hoos lost to Auburn.  No surprise for us Tech fans ;) 

Rides and Walks through the woods with the dogs.  A first.  I've never done much dark wood walking.  Other than almost losing an eye to a limb it was fun.  Not so cold here this year.   Some ball dropping with Ryan Seacrest and someone claiming to be Jenny McCarthy but looking nothing like her (what was up with the pasted yellow hair?)  Enough champagne to make the night light and festive but not enough to make me wake up feeling nasty and whiny.  Or sickly.  Thank goodness.  I can't take feeling like that anymore.  And several episodes of the Twighlight Zone.

A little Facetiming Caleb and Izzy for some fireworks and calls from the kids at midnight.

Everyone happy but Eudora who HATEs booms.

So HAPPY happy New Year everyone.

Starting out my first day with a little blogging, photo editing, cooking... GOT to have those black eyed peas and collard greens.  $$$$$$ in 2013.  Working out.  Photographing anything just to start my year off in a creative way.  And vacuum up sequins that are everywhere from my party pants.

and napping at some point on the sofa with my Toonces.

Happy Day.

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”—Anne Frank

Bronx 4 and a half months.

baking cookies with Izzy

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Sick of Ham.

I have so much sodium in my body I don't know if I can drink enough water to flush it out.  Toonces loves the leftover Honey Baked Ham but you can only take so much ham.   One thing I am not sick of is walking around looking at all my awesome gifts.  I can't grow tired of that.

What a wonderful glorious holiday.   I had the best Christmas.   I think they get better every year and only those early years of memories waiting for Santa could be any more exciting.  I try to make gift opening time go as slow as possible with the kids so I can see everything and take in everything but that is a hard job.  They just want to get them open.  Can't blame them for that but as adults we know that once they are all opened it is basically over and time to clean up.

And I hate clean up time.  Packing up time.  We worked most of yesterday putting things back in storage except for taking down the tree.   It's real so it is pretty dry right now.  But the Toonces and Rollie tradition is New Years Day.  And it works for us so we're afraid to change it.   Man you really have to love it or it just isn't worth the work :)

Melanie's kids recorded 'The Night Before Christmas' in a book for me.  It is on the shelf now with Ben and Jackson doing 'We're not Afraid of Anything'...what wonderful gifts.  I love having their little voices frozen in time just as they are.  They grow up so quickly that any way I can preserve a part of them, well I want to do it.

Is everyone ready to ring in a new year?  We already have some fun things planned for 2012 but mostly I am making some internal promises to myself.  Though I don't list off resolutions there are things that I want to work on for myself.  And promises made to myself that I keep.  But mainly I want to do all things best for my family and give to those strangers that need my help without taking away their dignity.    The rest really doesn't matter so much.

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And some Christmas pics from the big day!

All my babies!

A Miami Heat sock monkey!

Bronx giving Ben kisses!