Happy New Year!

Recently my mother found one of our wedding napkins and gave it to me:

Best wishes for a great 2008 to all of you out there!

New Year's Resolution Time Again

I looked up, copied and pasted the New Year's resolutions I listed last year:

1. Health - probably the most listed resolution. I'm not out of shape but there is always room for improvement... I want to resume working out and continue eating well.
2. Fun - I want to take life and myself less seriously. I need to learn to not sweat the small stuff and find joy even when and where I least expect it.
3. Step Out - I want to take steps (even if they are baby steps) to get out of my comfort zone. I want to continue pursuing my passion for traveling, to branch out and meet new people, and do things out of my normal routine.

For the majority of the year I believe I kept these resolutions without thinking about them. Honestly, I forgot what New Year's goals I listed by mid January! I'm not sure about health but how can you not have fun and step out a little when:

• Your brother finally gets married and it's a party on the beautiful Neuse river in Oriental NC.
• You are there when your school upsets Michigan. (sorry Beth I keep mentioning this)
  
• You are there when your school wins it's 3rd national championship plus you get to tailgate for 6 hours prior to kickoff.
• You travel to Wyoming and Idaho. You visit the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks plus much more.
• You escape for a few days to Cabo San Lucas Mexico.

I decided to keep #1 and #2 on the list for 2008. I'm not too concerned about #3. I think part of having fun is stepping out.

Do you make New Year's resolutions?

Food for Thought or Thoughts of Food

I may not be a great hostess but I love food. Recently I've started taking pictures of my food - a little weird maybe. I bought these William Sonoma Peppermint Mocha Swirl marshmallows for my sister-in-law for Christmas. However I broke into the box myself and started putting them in hot chocolate.



Today my husband, son, and I went to one of our favorite pizza places downtown near the college. It has great, greasy pizza. We use to go there often when we lived in the area.





My brother and his wife gave my daughter a cupcake baking set. She made Triple Chocolate cupcakes today.

How to Mess Up Christmas Brunch

1. Tell everyone you will have the food ready when they arrive since they skipped breakfast, held out for brunch and are very hungry. Due to issues with the oven, the food was not ready and they waited in the kitchen staring at me for 30 minutes.
2. Fix great food but not enough. I just didn't calculate correctly. I doled out moderate servings when a few people wanted generous helpings. Only 2 guests were able to have seconds.
3. Allow my husband to make the coffee. He will not use a scoop. He insists on eyeballing it. That works okay when he makes the coffee for just us in the mornings not for a large group. We ended up with coffee so strong it barely resembled a liquid.

Ho Ho Ho and a Hangover

No, not one of my family Christmas pictures. It is a part of a collection of Drunken Santas on The Thinking Blog.

My Message to You

What's in my front yard with a few items added from Adobe.

A Gray Day Welcomed

It's a gray day as seen out my front door. Perfect for lounging around which pretty much describes my plans for today. Shopping done. Groceries for upcoming events bought. Of course gifts still need to be wrapped. There is a pile of laundry to be washed. By Christmas day, the downstairs needs to be clean and company ready. Oh well, nothing urgent. Our gray cat Chloe has summed up my mood on this gray day:

Don't They Have Anything Better To Do?

In the last 3 weeks since I've changed email filters for my work address, I've had 494 spam emails blocked. How much Viagra and penile enlargement products do I need? Actually don't answer that!

Problem Solved

I have determined the best place to hide my son's Christmas gifts is near his dirty clothes. He will never notice.

Are you a slob or live with one? I live with two and a pack rat.

Disappearing Act and Questions To Ponder

Poof! I've disappeared. Not really. I deactivated my facebook account as an early Christmas present for my son. We have an unusual last name. He hated the fact when his friends looked for him they found me. For the record, I had my facebook first. I didn't use it much. I set it up as a part of a CPA group and went from there. I still have 2 personal email accounts, a work email, flickr and a blog. Best I get rid of something.
Now for the questions:
1. How come if I have an expensive pair of sunglasses they get lost or broken and my cheap pair has 9 lives? I've held on to the cheap sunglasses a year maybe two. They always show up and remain in one piece. I continue to be amazed.
2. What is up with me and paper shredders yesterday? I sort of understand jamming our cheapo shredder at home but I thought our heavy duty one at work was indestructible. I not only jammed the monster one - reverse is fried out. I hope it doesn't raise flags at the office that the accountant is desperately trying to destroy documents. Actually it's all my junk mail from home.
Any answers to those questions blogger friends?

Here is proof Chloe is smart. She now does homework in the afternoons.

Getting On With My Life

I've been quoted as saying "once football is over I will get on with my life". And as much fun as our whole family had, it took up a lot of time, energy, and money. It's time to move on. I will miss the seniors players. I'll miss the drum majors. They are all seniors, too. I would like to thank all my non-Mountaineer friends for putting up with my obsession from the glorious win over Michigan to the National Championship. To my Mountaineer blogging friends - what a great season, it was wonderful seeing you and getting to know you better.

I've still managed not to get into my holiday depression though ironically I'm so far behind on my Christmas shopping. I pretty much know what I need to buy. I just need to do it! We stuck with our little Christmas tree less fragile ornaments due to the cat. She had left it alone until this past weekend. I think she was mad we were out of town. Here is a picture of the tree and a few of my favorite ornaments. Actually I have more favorites but we are limited due to Chloe.

How are you doing with Christmas?

My Christmas Wish Came True

A third straight national championship for Appalachian State Mountaineers!

The List

Move flags from house to car.

Put magnet back on hood of the car, remembering to remove it at each stop. They are known to get stolen.

Move the filled growler (keg) from the other car to the Mountaineer mobile.

Football Free (almost) Christmas Post

Knock on wood. I have to say I'm much more happy this Christmas season than I have been in the last several years. In the past I've been anywhere from being in a funk to totally depressed. What's different this year? I just don't give a damn. I've gone through some of the decorating process. We put the Christmas tree up last weekend. There is one stocking hung (our cat's). A wreath is on the front door. The large holly bush has lights (thanks to my husband) and a freakin' ribbon is on my mailbox (along with an ASU magnet I added for balance) - there! Yes I realize this is minimal actually way under minimal out here in the ever competitive 'burbs but then again I just don't care. I use to feel guilty for my kids but if it means so much to them, there are boxes of Christmas stuff upstairs. They can help themselves. The gift buying is moving along. I try to do something everyday. No matter the outcome (and I really, really hope it's a 3rd national championship in a row) after 3 1/2 months, football will be over after Friday. I will have more time to finish all this holiday stuff up next week. Ho, ho. I guess I'm still allowed to say "ho".

One Step Closer

App defeated Richmond and has moved on to the championship game against Delaware. After the game we waited and waited along with thousands of our closest Mountaineer friends for tickets to Chattanooga. I didn't get to sleep until after 3 a.m. I'm tired but hAPPy.

What I Want for Christmas

The Friday Night Lights Forecast

for Boone NC Friday December 7:

Time

Condition

Feels Like

Chance Precip

Dew Point

Humid.

Wind

8pm

Cloudy 40°F

36°F

10%

33°F

76%

From SW 5 mph

9pm

Mostly Cloudy 40°F

36°F

10%

32°F

73%

From SW 5 mph

10pm

Mostly Cloudy 40°F

36°F

10%

32°F

73%

From SW 5 mph

11pm

Mostly Cloudy 41°F

38°F

10%

33°F

73%

From WSW 5 mph

Sat, December 8

12am

Mostly Cloudy 42°F

39°F

10%

34°F

73%

From WSW 5 mph

Do they know it's Christmas?

Made in 1984 inspiring Live Aid the next year. I loved this video. MTv was still new, English pop superstars with great looking hair, Boy George's make-up was superb. In a previous post, I mentioned my 3 big crushes were all in this video: Sting, Bono, and John Taylor.
As the case when big egos collaborate, there was some drama. Boy George had to be rushed in from NYC by Concorde. He laid down his tracks the next day and was not a part of the group shots. The 80's were great!

Oh Alternative Christmas Tree

We have always gotten real Christmas trees. The NC mountains (especially around Boone) have many tree farms. Last year we got one after App won the semi- finals over Youngstown State. We have the same opportunity this weekend but I think our cat Chloe will go crazy over a real tree. She's an indoor cat and anything from the outdoors puts her senses in overdrive. She has already done damage to my plants I've brought inside. Chloe is only 9 months old so I'm hoping she will settle down and we can have a real tree next year. We already have a small artificial tree. When the kids were smaller, they put their handmade ornaments on it. This fake tree with our non fragile ornaments will be our alternative this Christmas. My daughter is ok with the plan because the cat is hers. My son (who probably would barely notice a tree normally) is pouting about the situation. Here a shot of a Christmas tree farm on the way to Boone Saturday.

Semi Finals Here We Come!

We will back in Boone next Friday or Saturday for the 5th week in a row. Here are some pictures of today's game:


Update: Next week's game was scheduled for Saturday then changed to Friday night because Delaware was set to play in the other semi-final game Friday. They got stuck in Iowa after their win due to bad weather so loss of a day of preparation. An 8 pm game in the mountains, brrr! I'm calm about it. Not the case with my husband. He had to change our hotel reservations. Our big tailgater meet-up complete with micro brewed kegs has been either shortened or postponed. Our son can't make the trip. He feels it's a bad sign. I hope he's wrong.