New Year

I didn't write a blog entry yesterday because I'm a slack wench. Also, because I'm mentally wired to write these things first thing after I get to work -- if I don't do it then, then it's not going to get done. And when I got to work first thing yesterday, I got sucked into trying to fill out my expense report so I can be paid back for the office holiday party before the credit card bill comes due. Filling out that report took -- and I'm not exaggerating -- two and a half hours.

Anyway, we had a very nice new year weekend. I took Thursday (the 31st) off from work (mostly, except for having to log in for about an hour in the morning) and spent most of the morning taking down Christmas decorations and schlepping them over to storage. I decided to put off taking down the outdoor decorations, since it was raining and I didn't want to pack that stuff up wet.

And as long as I was packing boxes and going to the storage unit anyway, I also packed up some boxes and pulled a few more out of storage that were things to be donated to the local thrift store, which cleared some space out of the storage unit and the house nicely.

Then I met Matt and Vicki for lunch at Ichiban, which was fun, and after they went back to work, I went and wandered around Barnes and Noble for a while. I picked up some Christmas markdown stuff for next year's stockings, and my book for book club, and almost bought a bunch of other stuff, just because it was cool and fun.

That evening, we had our New Year's Eve celebration on Greenwich time -- that is, at 7pm our time -- so the kids could participate. We blew on our noisemakers and drank sparkling grape juice from "fancy" (if plastic) champagne flutes, and I later tweeted about kissing cute boys.

New Year's Day, Friday, was fairly quiet. Mostly, Penny and I devoted it to cooking -- we made mint candies and cheese straws. Penny had a blast shaping her cheese straws into shapes, once she got the hang of how thin to roll the dough.

Saturday, we trooped down to Newport News to have lunch with Chuck and Anita and their daughter, Heidi. We were a little worried about Alex, since lunch carried straight over his usual naptime, but since he had a new place to explore and new toys to play with and people who paid him lots of attention whenever he wanted, he did just fine. Heidi and Penny got along like gangbusters, and eventually they settled into watching The Polar Express, which left the adults mostly free to chat -- everybody wins!

After we got home and put Alex down to collapse into exhausted slumber, Matt took Penny off to the Jumping Joey's to run around and get some exercise. It wasn't as much fun as she was hoping, I think, without a friend along, but she recognized another kid from school (albeit a 4th grader) and apparently badgered her into playing with her for a while.

And finally on Sunday, I took down the last of the Christmas decorations and put them away in storage, and then after Alex's nap we went down to my parents' to have a New Year's dinner with my family. That was nice, too -- very low-key; the perfect way to wrap up the holiday season, I think.

Now, of course, it's time to get back to work, back on the diet, and back into the usual rhythm of things.