<p>H and I had a relaxing weekend at the lake. After a mild, no snow Christmas we got 5 to 6 inches at the lake. Perfect for a beautiful and quiet retreat watching lots of movies. This week I need to get ready to host a NYE celebration and then will be hosting 14 on NY Day to watch our state flagship in a bowl game. Looks like I will be in the kitchen most of the week! </p>
<p>Christmas was lovely and it was nice having everyone home. D2 was as efficient as ever and has tried on all of her gifts and taken them home and put them away. Only a skirt and sweater need exchanged. D1 on the other hand hasn’t even taken hers from under the tree to try on. Our annual Christmas Eve appetizer competition was fun and H won with his Chicken bacon BBQ crescents. We had lots of fun playing Heads Up and 99, the card game. </p>
<p>We’re here in South Carolina for the celebrity NYE learn-a-thon and shindig. Met some interesting folks. Am giving a talk today on how to think about career paths/choices.</p>
<p>My 3-day birthday celebration has come and gone; family, friends, and too much food, but a “lovely time was had by all.” </p>
<p>It’s cold here – predictions for a storm possibly bringing snow below 2000’ (very rare for us) and freezing temperatures on the 30th - 31st. I wouldn’t want to be sleeping out on the parade route this year. Brrrrr.</p>
<p>Sounds like all of us on the thread are having a wonderfully peaceful holiday - although I’m sorry to hear about your friend’s H, fallgirl.
Happy birthday, zetesis!
MP where are you? And Moda, really…I miss your posts and hope to hear lots of good news!
S was here only for Christmas Eve and the 25th. D is back in the city as of last night and has a 5-day ski trip planned for tomorrow with college friends. She was able to see many of her HS friends thanks to planning efforts of a another gf. Interesting group of young women… many different and somewhat unexpected paths but all very happy with their chosen paths right now. Lots of talk re: engagements, marriages and even children from their HS class. I guess this is the time!</p>
<p>nice to catch up and glad that so many had nice Holidays and birthdays.
I have H’s chest cold and cannot stop coughing yet there will be 15 for dinner tonight. (I am super clean in the kitchen so hope that no one catches this).
Menu:
pork tenderloin glaze, truffle mashed potatos, cherry tomato au gratin, lots of meats and cheeses and a new feta marinated with herb recipe along with this and that. Congo bars and pumpkin bread. D is making a new bourbon drink.
lots of wine and lemondade.
forgive my spelling I am too rummy to catch things.
This is to be a white elephant so hopefully will be fun.</p>
<p>D was in a 6 car pile up but not hurt and was the only one who did not get a ticket. Car has minor damage to the rear bumper.</p>
<p>Hello. I am alive and well. Put older d on a plane tonight so she could spend NYE in the city with friends. The three kids got along as well as could be expected. More later. </p>
<p>Good morning and Happy New Year!
Slammed at work, literally burning the midnight oil 2015 appears to be coming in like a lion…
The sister birthday visit was, how shall we say, a little wild. Suspect someone slipped the other birthday girl a rufi or something at 80s night. The whole ordeal reminded me of weekend at Bernie’s ;)</p>
<p>I’d planned to take Monday off, but ended up needing to work so left the zombie sisters to their own devices and had a very long day closing a new project. I’ve decided I’m grounded for New Years…need a holiday from all the holidays ;)</p>
<p>I’ve had a few proof-of-life communications from the wandering, lonely-hearted mcson. His visits to friends in various cities has been mixed in terms of enjoyment. He says its been valuable, learning which old friends are uplifting and supportive versus which ones are turning up as self-absorbed. He sounds like he’s getting ready to reinvent his life. I think there will be some shedding.</p>
<p>At any rate, I’ll take whatever blessings and adventures (and who am i kidding, tribulations) the new year has in store, and send you all the mojo for a wonderful year! Cheers!</p>
<p>oregon101,hope you feel better! Your dinner sounds lovely. I was using up old things in my kitchen last night and had a fabulous dinner of hot dogs, stale buns (but not blue/green), and salad on the verge of getting slimy.D got here late last night and we have reservations for tonight’s dinner. Have tickets to tour Lincoln Center today. S left yesterday morning for a week. We didn’t intentionally mean for the kids to miss each other but I think it will make for a smoother time for all of us. The siblings last saw each other Labor Day weekend.</p>
<p>I’m so impressed with McSon. If he wants to wander this way, let me know. Happy to put him up.</p>
<p>-11 here this morning. Up to 30 degrees now, and sunny. With no wind, that is actually pretty comfy, and I’m going to take a little walk after I slather on the sunscreen.</p>
No formal resolutions but need to keep going to yoga and step things up on the treadmill. Plan to cut back some on the wine and sweets. My motto this year is to be excellent to everyone. We’ll see how that goes…
Happy New Year to all! I also don’t do formal resolutions, but will be doing my best to be a consistent exerciser, a healthy, lower carb eater, and more of a “just let it go” type person. Of the 3, the last will no doubt be the most difficult …
H and I ended up not driving to visit S in NJ where he’s stationed – since he was on duty for Christmas, he had more latitude during this between holidays period, and came to us! He can be up to 5 hours away without taking leave. Boston is stretching it a bit, depending on how fast he drives, but since there’s really not much happening on base during this period, he should be OK. (Unless there’s a snowstorm on its way; then he needs to hightail it back to supervise snow removal on the runways.) In between getting together with friends from school he’s actually been spending some time with us, which has been great. D and her bf had been in MD with his family, but came back Tues night. We all went out to brunch yesterday, which was lots of fun.
And, H & I had been planning to go to Stowe for a few days of skiing, etc. We finally decided not to go because it’s very cold and the conditions aren’t all that great – but the price of lift tickets during a holiday period are still very high. We have a lot of flexibility so will just go another time. That’s all fine with me, for all the above reasons, AND because H was insisting we take the puppy, which means a lot more work for me.
Spent a very quiet NYE at home, watching a couple of movies. Because of that we were actually awake to see the ball drop, and then scooted off to bed.
Healing mojo (to borrow from kmc) to all who are under the weather!
Fall girl, I like that resolution…maybe I’ll borrow it
CBB, nice that S was able to come to see you. Enjoy!
Arabrab, thx for the kind words…I’d be happy to ship mcson your way if he needs another walkabout. After all, he’s got that open ticket…
He’s due to return tonight or tomorrow, he tells me. Don’t know if the daily grind will be better or worse for him, but we’ll see…
FallGirl – thanks for remembering. Yes, I’d say S has finally adjusted quite well to everything Air Force. A year ago he got hit by the double whammy of breaking up with his gf AND being in the military. In his job he’s classified as a Civil Engineer, and oversees various projects – new construction, building maintenance and repairs, and, in the winter, keeping the runways clear of snow. He likes being out and about on the various job sites. And we guess he’s doing his job well since he received and Officer of the Quarter Award recently – which, in his typical way, he casually mentioned in a passing comment. He oversees a budget of $110 million.
Have you all listened to the “Serial” podcasts? Since I’m usually the last to know such things, I assume many of you have? Just listened to Season 1, Episode 1 at the gym this morning – which was great since it totally took my mind off running.
My dryer broke (it runs, but there’s no heat) – but since I have resolved to “let it go” in 2015, I’m not stressing. The repair guy comes tomorrow …
Happy New Year to All! We spent a quiet evening at home with friends. I made a seafood lasagna with shrimp, scallops and crab meat in an alfredo sauce. Yummy! They taught us how to play cribbage and then we played 500, our favorite card game. Yesterday we hosted three other couples for lunch and the MN college football game. Lots of fun even though they lost. Made meatball subs, antipasto salad and various appetizers one expects for football tailgating! H and I are a little tired but heading to the movies today with D2 to watch Unbroken.
CBB…I have Serial downloaded but haven’t listened yet!
My son has been recommending Serial for a while, but I’m listening to World Order by Henry Kissinger, which is astounding in its breadth. Highly recommended.
We got back from the celebrity learn-a-thon/NYE party. We all had fun, but ShawD really got out of it what I had hoped. She was a panelist on in several sessions and adults, some in health care, came up to her afterwards and told her how insightful and articulate she was. Some of them told me and ShawWife later. She said, “That was inspiring. I was going down the track of being a practicing nurse practitioner, but I can also do more.” When she was working at one of the local hospitals, she discovered that nurses and doctors were not fluent with the current thinking on gender roles and gender fluidity. She corrected some nurses and/or interns in staff room and they asked her to give a talk and that went over so well that they asked her if she would talk again to a broader group of I think residents and interns. She’s very comfortable with speaking about sex and sex roles and feels strongly that if you don’t understand the varying kinds of gender roles, you inadvertently insult people. So, maybe she will start to work on that as well. And, from the weekend, she both got to listen to and talk with Dr. Ruth. We got a great picture of ShawD (sitting) with Dr. Ruth (standing) – so that they could be in the same picture. Plus, she met a number of nice young men.
I gave two talks, one related to my work and one on how to think about career choices/career trajectories. A standing joke was that I had groupies because two classes of people really wanted to talk with me. One group had read things I had written when they were studying for an MBA or law degree and now realized who I was and the other group was thinking about career choices/changes and had come to my talk. The latter group seemed to include a meaningful contingent of 20-35 year-old women (who were bright, accomplished and often had graduate degrees from good schools). The meals had buffet lines and I was usually delayed in getting from the table to the buffet and back to the table by someone who wanted to talk with me.
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2015 appears to be coming in like a lion…