A Happy 2012!

Well, here we are again on the first day of the New Year! And boy, am I looking forward to the year ahead! 2011 was certainly a year for me. One in which I felt a little lost, but one that ended on a good note... not counting the fact that both of my little girls have terrible colds and the poor old dog had a trip to the vets yesterday! But, hey, I'm focusing on the positive here and I'm going to take this positive energy all the way through 2012!
Last night, the hubby, girls, and I rang in the New Year, laughing, dancing and full of good New Year spirit (unfortunately not of the alcoholic variety)... this was a marked contrast with last year's New Year's Eve, whereby we were all slumped on the couch suffering from a bout of food poisoning... strangely, ill health followed me throughout the year...  So, being a superstitious gal, I made sure this New Year's Eve that I was happy and confident (albeit wiping the girls noses and administering medication to the dog) and hopefully this up-beat attitude will continue throughout 2012!

2012 is going to be a good year for all of us in this little old place... this is the year for finishing some tasks around here. The year that I will *own* the garden (and win the battle with the mosquitoes), the year I will take a family vacation (and it won't be to the UK), the year I will keep my commitment to the gym, learn to live with my food allergies and finally make that blooming blind for the back door!!! I've committed here, so let's see if I can achieve at least some of the above ;-)

Anyhoo, I flipped the new calendar to January this morning (apparently, my mum says it's bad luck to turn it before... and to have wet laundry on New Year's Day... Did I mention I'm superstitious?)... Where was I? Ah yes, the calendar... not the usual Sainsbury's freebie!! It appears that the recession is biting old Mr J Sainsbury's and he has deemed that the giving of free calendars is a frivolity too far. Bah, humbug!

So, I picked up the January Period Living along with a free 2012 calendar. I know, I could have actually spent money on a calendar, but that would have been a  break in tradition too far!  The poor hubby was a tad disappointed that he's going to be greeted by piccies of old homes, instead of delicious food, but, hey, he'll have to take his complaints to Mr. Sainsbury... You never know, the hubby could end up being motivated by the gorgeous images of period homes and decide to start fixing this place up! Now there's a thought...

Anyways, I best be getting on, I have sick children and pets to tend...  Oh, and a New Year's Dinner to cook. Start the New Year as I mean to go on, and that includes good home cooking! Ooh, but before I leave, let me just say, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Thank you so much for popping by this past year... you were definitely a highlight of 2011!
Lx

Smile in 2011

I'm a little bit late off the starting block when it comes to the New Year... but I've made it... I'm finally here in 2011. How's yours going so far? I've been trying to get the this little old place ship-shape and ready for the up and coming year (which mainly just involved packing away the holiday decorations). A job which I never relish, packing away all the magic, carefully, in bubble wrap, knowing that it will be a whole 11 months before I see them again (by which time I've usually forgotten what has been squirreled away).

Anyhoo, I was listening to the radio (yes, Santa did treat me to that cream Roberts radio... I must have been a really good girl...) and there was a segment on New Year's resolutions... who makes them and what they were for 2011. There were the usual... stop smoking... diet... be more organised, etc... and then, one women announced that, in order to keep her New Year's resolution, she was setting her goals a lot lower in 2011... My ears pricked up and I decided I liked the cut of her jib... my kind of gal... Anyways, her resolution was to smile every morning... and my first thought was, 'attainable... really?'
This thought was closely followed by 'You cynic, Laura. Is it really that hard to smile every morning?'
I'd love to say no... I'd love to say that I wake up, think of my life, and smile... just as the bluebirds peal back my bed linen and the dog runs in with my nicely warmed slippers, and places them beside my bed... but life isn't a fairytale... I'm not going to go into my morning routine, as I'm sure, most of you out there have your own morning tales to tell. All I will say is that it's like waking up strapped into a roller coaster and knowing that there's no way off until bedtime.

Where am I going with this?... Ahh, yes... to smile every morning... Yes, this is my New Year's resolution... to do it right before the chaos happens... that split second where my eyelids are still heavy and clinging onto my eyeballs for dear life, I'm going to remind myself that I would not have my life any other way... remind myself that, throughout the day, there will be tears and there will be tantrums, but there will be lots and lots of smiles...

Take care all and keep smiling!
L :-)

New Year, a New Calendar...

Someone once said that the week between Christmas and New Year's is like a week's worth of Sundays, and I have to agree. Each day slips by and, at the end of it, I've done absolutely nothing other than eat and enjoy being around the hubby and my girls. The huge amount of snow we've had here in the Northeast only added to my lethargy... not that I'm complaining. I've managed to flick through my old magazines and get some ideas together for the New Year. I'm almost like a racehorse, chomping at the bit, waiting to spring into 2011 and get all my plans into gear.

Anyhoo, the other day, a magazine landed in my mailbox, all the way from Blighty. My mum sends me the January edition of the 'Sainsbury's Magazine' each year... Sainsbury's is a UK supermarket... so why do I get the magazine when I can only dream of doing my weekly shop there? Well, this is the calendar that becomes our kitchen family calendar. This supermarket freebie has been the diary in my house well before I came to America, and ever since I have been here. I scribble down every event in the little square box, no matter how trivial. And, at the end of the year, I pack away the calendar, with all of the others.... but not before I've flicked through them all. These little 12 page diaries show me when guests have visited, the vacations I've taken, my visits to the UK, events from during my pregnancies, and all manner of both momentous and tedious occasions. I love that they are all in the same format... this supermarket recipe calendar takes me through the year via healthy suppers at the start of the year, to Easter lamb, to sumptuous strawberry dishes and juicy burgers mid-Summer, and onto stodgy warming meals when the nights draw in, and, finally, back to some Christmas offering at the end of the year. I love looking back at all of the years of my life, from when there was just me, to the two of us, and then to the four of us... like a stack of maps, charting the path that my life has taken to get me to the present day...

Who knows what will go down in this year's calendar... what will I be smiling at when I pack away my trusty Sainsbury's calendar at the end of 2011?

Oh, and before I forget... with it being Friday tomorrow, I figured I would share my Christmas roses with you (the hubby gets me two dozen every Christmas)... I know I've done these so many times before, but they're just too beautiful not to show you...

 

Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year. I'll raise a glass to you all at the stroke of twelve!
Lx