Holiday Round Up

Well, it has been quite busy around here since I last posted. December was a very chaotic month. I was mostly consumed with the planning of my father's 70th birthday party, which took place on the 16th.Those of you who are local may remember that day as "The Arrival of the Snowstorm From Hell." So, my planning of the party, which was supposed to have 70 attendees, with a rented hall, and a boatload of food, ended up being myself, my husband, my kids, two of my brothers and about 10 die-hard family members and friends. The weather definitely put a HUGE damper on the entire affair, but for those that did make it, we all had a good time. Just a little defeating to spend so much time planning, and have it ruined by weather. Sigh!

So with my energy being wrapped up in all that, I found myself with less than two weeks to go to Christmas, and no baking or shopping done. Needless to say, time was of the essence in those remaining days and I was a whirling dervish of activity. As usual, I was stressed to the max and fretting all the while, when, in the end, everything turned out beautifully. This was aided and abetted by the fact that most of the Christmas entertaining was out of my hands. We had a fabulous Christmas Eve dinner and present-opening bonanza at my sister-in-law Ela's place. Christmas morning brought breakfast with my Dad and two brothers, and another round of presents. Then we made our way to my Auntie Cathy's place for an amazing dinner (and yes, more presents! Kripes!) Boxing Day was my entertaining day with my brother and his family coming out for the day.

I thought we were done, but it didn't really end there, which is great too. We got to see a lot of friends, and spend time with family, as the kiddies were off for another week, as was my husband. Tomorrow I have put aside as a day of ultimate vegging, before starting back into the school and homework routine.

We were lucky enough (knock on wood) to have escaped any major illnesses over the holiday, unlike many of my friends and their families who were visited by the Grinch in the form of the Norwalk virus. Not the way you want to lose weight, from what I have heard. I am glad to hear they they have all crawled back into the land of the living. I hope the New Year brings good health for everyone! (Oops, too late. Just got off the phone with my friend Kris who thinks she either has Norwalk or food poisoning from take-out souvlaki. Hugs (from a distance, mind) Kris!)

In other news, I am slowly creeping back into the working world, with proofing and copyediting jobs being thrown my way. It is nice to get back into that scene, and to realize that I have not put any of those skills into the mental recycle bin over the years.

With the advent of the New Year, many people have asked me if I have made any resolutions. I told my friend Shane, "Only to not make any resolutions!", but that is not really true. I think we all see the beginning of a new year as an opportunity to make a new start, and to try to develop some good habits that have fallen by the wayside. I am going to try to get on the treadmill, and am seriously going to put energy into giving up my greatest vice of all. CHOCOLATE. I think I would gross you all out if I told you the amount of chocolate I consume in a week. I honestly believe, if I eat half-way decently, and give up the chocolate, I could lose 20 pounds in a month. So, there's my goal. On February 7, I will let you know if I made that forecasted target.

The other thing I am going to try to do, is to devote a minimum of 1-3 hours a day to my writing. Only I can make that time, and I really want to get back to it. Excuses only go so far.

So, to be a cliche, what are your resolutions? Any? Stubbornly none? Broken them already? Let me know in the comments, and keep me posted on your progress. Let us all be inspirations for each other.

PS. Oh yeah, my other resolution? To get to bed before 11:00 pm on week nights. We'll see how that and the 1-3 hours of writing fall into place together.

Take care.