Good night 2011

Well, another year has come and gone. Like many of you out there you are journalling, blogging, tweeting, face booking or just thinking in general about what this year has been and how next year will be bigger and  better. And I truly hope that it is.

I've been absent for a while. The desire to write has been gone for a while. Even though it felt so cathartic last year. So, maybe I'll make a little more effort this year, but I'm not committing to any regularity. Just when moved. :)

Earlier this month we celebrated our 18th anniversary. Yep. 18 years. We took a cruise with another couple of friends (who recently celebrated their 30th anniversary). This was a first cruise for all of us. We had a lot of fun together.

The first night we were at sea, on our way to Grand Cayman where we went snorkeling and swam with the stingrays. Then to Cozumel, where we just shopped and had fun at the port. Then off to Belize where we went to see the Mayan pyramids (INCREDIBLE!), then Honduras where we went zip lining. I need to stop and write about each of the adventures before I forget the details. It's all beginning to run together as it is. At least I have pictures. Now we are planning our next trip - UK in the spring. It's been a long time coming.

Christmas was spent with friends in the neighborhood. We started with champagne around noon, had fun visiting and then had a traditional English Christmas dinner. We played a really interesting game that was kind of like a white elephant. We all wore venetian masks, rolled the dice and for every 1 or 6 you took a gift from the table or someone else. At the end of 45 minutes we all opened our gifts to see what we had been "fighting" over. It was pretty funny.

Tonight we're doing "curry night" and ringing in the new year. I'm sure there will be stories to be told.

Well, it's 70 degrees and sunny. I'm thinking about going for a bike ride.

Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas

The End Is Near

Well, it's that time of year again. When everyone begins talking about how they can't believe another year has already gone by. When everyone starts feeling sentimental about friends and family. When everyone swears that Christmas is about spending time with those friends and family but still freaks out when they don't have the right gifts. And I'm no different.

For Thanksgiving, we had a few friends over. And as cliche as it sounds, that's really the thing I love the most. I always rush around in near-panic about company coming over to our home. And in the end, it's my most favorite thing in the world. We don't host a lot of parties or get-togethers. But I can say that what makes me really happy is seeing a group of my friends all together having a good time. Several years ago, we had a group of friends fly in to spend the holiday with us. It was crowded, and loud. We didn't have a dining room table so we threw a few sheets over the ping-pong table and sat down for Thanksgiving dinner. I think that was one of my most favorite days ever.

Now it's time to concentrate on Christmas. Christmas isn't as fun to me as Thanksgiving. It's harder to pull friends together because there is so much going on. It's a little more stressful because I feel like I'm putting up the tree for just the two of us - which I know, should be enough, but I feel like I want to share it with more people. We don't do a lot of gifts. There are too many nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters. So we tend to just concentrate on the youngest ones in the family. Besides, we're at that point in life where there just aren't a lot of things we need that we don't have. And seriously, when friends ask what I want for Christmas, and I say "just a lunch or dinner date" or "cocktail hour" I really mean that.

I haven't even begun to think about shopping. I'm going to try to not put it off until the last minute like I usually do. Actually, it's usually at the last minute that I think, "oh crap. I should have gotten some thing for that person." So, I guess I need to set some goals. First off will be to get my Christmas cards out. Maybe that will be this weekend's project. Still need to get the tree up (I slapped the lit wreath up on the door this evening). Then probably need to get the lights up on the house before the neighbors start giving us a hard time (all in good natured fun). Then find time to relax and enjoy it all.

Wish me luck.