As the New Year fast approaches

I've been thinking about past New Year's, especially those since 2001 and as long as Eric and I have been together, and I realized something.

We suck at celebrating New Year's.

This year? We're sitting at home, drinking wine (me) and beer (him), eating cookies, maybe YouTubing later for fun. (Oh, how lame we are.) At least we did put on some nice(r) clothes and a little makeup (well, I did) so we feel a little more festive.

Past years? I realized I couldn't even remember most of our NYE's together. 2001 we were in New York City. But as we walked around the city earlier in the day, and saw all of the preparations - including what felt like armies of police officers on various corners preparing for patrol (this was the first NYE post-9/11), we decided Times Square was the last place we wanted to be. We went to a party with a friend, but it was totally lame (what I remember most was a bunch of kids of various ages all sequestered in a bedroom that felt more like a closet, and some guy talking about how he'd been working on his dissertation - on James Joyce, of course - for way too many years). And so, at midnight, NYE, 2001, in NYC, we were in our hotel room, watching the ball drop on TV like everyone else in the country. Lame.

2002? I don't remember. At all. I don't think this is because I was too drunk, either, unfortunately. Looking back at pictures and trying to figure it out, I think we were either in a hotel somewhere, or were spending one night in our apartment after getting back off one road trip and about to depart on another to fetch Rosalind from Houston for her Christmas visit. No pictures, no memories. No clue.

2003? I was pregnant, with Guthrie. We had a party platter of meats and cheeses, drank sparkling grape juice with Sammie and Roz from pretty glasses, and watched the ball drop on TV. There are pictures. I remember that one.

2004? At our farmhouse, we drank a bottle of champagne Eric had gotten during his week in France promoting his book. (He was given the bottle as part of the festival he attended.) House full of kids. Not much excitement.

2005? No memories, again. None. *sigh* See a trend yet?

2006? That one was okay. We stayed the night in a hotel on South Padre Island, watched fireworks on the beach from our room, had a party tray and wine and beer, and stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning on the deck of the hotel room, kids asleep in the room. That was our best NYE.

We were going to go back to the beach this year, but the holidays left us broke. *sigh* Next year maybe.

So, this year, we're boring and lame again. I hope everyone else is having fun for us. Turner is already sleeping, Guthrie is watching a movie, Roz is reading, and look at what I'm doing. The neighbors are shooting off fireworks (illegally).

2007 was a decent year, but 2008 is going to be better. Much better. Good things are on their way.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Merry Christmas

The goods, the treats, and the aftermath.

And this doesn't even show the Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake from my mom (there's still plenty left), half of the goodies (Santa - and my mom - were very good to us this year) or half the mess.

Guthrie is still sick, but better. His fever got up to 104 last night, but today it's been mostly normal, and he was up to doing Christmas. But what kid isn't?

Hope everyone's holiday was wonderful, and Santa brought you just what you wanted!

(And the pictures were taken with my present, a new digital camera that's just the right size to fit in a pocket or purse, so I can always have it with me! Yeah!)

'Twas the night before Christmas

And Guthrie was sick. 102F fever. Passed out, on the living room floor, at 4:30 in the afternoon, with Christmas cookies waiting to be decorated and left out for Santa, a Santa tracker to track, and all the other Christmas Eve fun waiting to be done.

Poor kid. Turner was sick Saturday, in the hotel in Austin, then while we had to wait for my mom and Samantha's plane to arrive - 7 hours late! The up side of the illness (if there is an upside) is that Turner slept Friday night for a 7 hour stretch, for the first time in his life. His previous record was 4 hours. I knew something had to be wrong, though, and that was confirmed when I felt his hot little belly first thing the next morning.

Hopefully all will be well tomorrow morning, Santa will have come, and we will have a Merry Christmas after all.

Santa!!!

Guthrie liked Santa.

A LOT!!!

Turner ... didn't.

I think we're *almost* done shopping. One more gift to get, and Eric is insisting he get some money to get me a gift (which I'm reluctantly agreeing to, after being unable to stop getting him gifts once I started). Oh, stocking stuffers too - that could get expensive. Maybe we're not quite done after all ...

This was a very good Santa too. Not quite the one I grew up with, who is the *real* Santa I am certain, but he was still very very good. But oh, if only the threat of "behave now, or we'll go back and tell Santa that you are not minding" would work all year long. It works so very well.

Fun with stickers

Turner has fallen in love with stickers. He will play with them for hours, decorating whatever we give him. So we decided to wrap some of our gifts in plain brown paper and let the boys decorate them. Turner loved it - wouldn't stop when it was time. But he got tired of decorating the paper, and decided to decorate me instead. So. Much. Fun.

(PS - I saw that this is my 200th post. Missed my 100th, so we're celebrating 200 instead)

Whether the weather be cold

I clicked over to the Weather Channel's website to view our local current weather. Right now, at almost 10 p.m., it's 75F, and the high tomorrow will be low 90s. The headline at the top of the page was "Storm Watch: Ice Storm Coming." And I couldn't help but chuckle.

(I'm actually ready for a little cooler weather, and was excited when the forecast was showing a couple days next week with highs only in the 60s. But it looks like they've changed that now. Hard to get too Christmas-y at 90 degrees.)