Resolutions and Birthdays

I really don't like the first two weeks of the new year.  It's not that I feel pressure to make a resolution and keep it... It's that I feel pressure from everyone elses's resolution. 

Between Thanksgiving and New Years work becomes all-together civilized. A lot of people are on vacation and the workload is reasonable. It's like what I imagine work in the 50's being like... and by that, I really just mean you can actually take time to eat lunch. 

Starting on January 2nd and for the next two weeks, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE is back at work and I think they all resolve to do the work of 10 men. They all race around the office doing "very, very important work".  Whatever you do...DON'T walk through the office with a big carb-a-licious bagle or (gasp) a candy bar!  The glares are more than anyone can handle.  Nope: it's organic carrot sticks and non fat yogurt unless you want to just try and explain yourself.

Then comes MLK day and about half the people have/take the day off and on January 21st everything is blissfully back to normal.  I count down the days...

This year something blissfully wonderful happened on January 10th...barely a week into the new year. DONUTS appeared in the office!  I don't know what brave soul to thank, but someone socked it to the Resolution Crowd and brought in a giant box of Top Pot Donuts.  Boooya!  And just like that, the resolution wall came crumbling down (the sweet, sugary kind of crumble).  Then appeared Almond Roca, potato chips, cookies...and, yes, a fruit cake (clearly someone was cleaning out their house in this last case).  It was like my birthday came early.

Speaking of my birthday:  It was the the best birthday ever!  Hubs made me feel like the most special girl ever.  Work duly celebrated me.  Friends went to dinner with us and helped us eat a delicious Icon Ice Cream Sundae.  It was all just perfect, perfect, perfect.  I'm one lucky lady...and at least one day older.



The photo is fuzzy, but the friendships are not.



Aaron made me this amazing "nesting bowls" cocktail ring. 
It's incredibly comfortable to wear and I LOOOOOOVE it.

And with that, I'm packing up a birthday cake to myself and heading to work.

Cheers to a Happy 2014

This year we didn't send out holiday cards, make ten different types of cookies or go to many parties - Aaron and I tried very, very hard to have a less stressful holiday than normal (something Anner is just not good at).  Our efforts paid off!  Here is Chrismanukah and New Year's in a nutshell:

Thanksgiving/Hanukah started with not shopping, a lot of eating and running the Turkey Trot (see our last blog).

To kick-off the Christmas Season we took Adam and Hannah to see the holiday Cirque du Soleil show (Cirque Dreams Holidaze).  It was a pint-sized mystery date because they didn't know where we were taking them.  Adam wanted to know if we were taking him to the Maclemore show (a rapper; and 'no').  We are happy to report the kids seemed to be really impressed with the show and we had a fantastic time.

We decorated our tree and put presents under it.

I made a hellebore basket for the front yard.  Really nice to have some color and life out front.  Aaron can plant the hellebore this spring and we'll have it for years to come.

Then on Monday, the 30th, a box arrived from Alaska.  It was a crazy cool wooden bear puzzle.  At first we were both skeptical.  A puzzle?  Hmm.

I went to bed and then around 2:00am I woke up to a half-empty bed and found Hubs at the table clicking little pieces into place.  I nudged him to come to bed.  When I left for work in the morning he yelled from the bed, "I like puzzling!"  Good to know.

This isn't any regular puzzle.  The pieces are made of wood and many of the pieces are carved to look like things you recognize: a frog, an eagle, a cowgirl...

Close up.  They are about 1/4 inch thick.  The colors are rich and beautiful.  I came home from work and decided I should at least try to work on the puzzle.  A few hours later I could have also declared, "I like puzzling!"

On New Year's Eve we did a bit more.

Finally on New Year's Day I was in the middle of breakfast when Aaron asked if he could puzzle without me?  "What?! Absolutely not!! I'm half an egg from finishing...you can just wait for me, can't you?" He did wait.  I don't think it took us an hour to finish as all the pieces clicked into place.

Ta-Da!!!  Happy New Year's!  It really is just so cool!  Wish we had a coffee table to glue it to, a frame to display it...something.  It seems wrong to put it back in the box but I'm not sure what else we will do with it.

 

On Friday we go to a Shrimp and Grits party and the following weekend is my company holiday party.  With that, holiday season will be complete and Birthday Month will be half-gone.  Time flies when you're having fun and not totally stressed out!!

 

Cheers everyone!