Christmas and a New Year

I had a very nice Christmas. It was small and quiet, but I liked it that way. I opened presents in the morning, tree shining over me. My two younger sisters had me for Christmas*, always a good thing. I hope I can do half as well when I have them next year :) Books, dolls, and even toys for my kitties! My friend L also sent me a few things--turns out she was my Secret Jedi this year**, also a very good thing. So a year that could have been very sad and lonely--my first in over 8 years not spending it with my sister B--was actually very good after all (bad memories of the first year after my Mom passed away--two brothers had me that year and they both forgot. Or didn't mail on time, or something like that. So I had nothing, and no one remembered me, and not being remembered on Christmas Day really, really sucks).

After presents I let Kitty outside to find that it was snowing lightly.

She likes to try to catch the snowflakes. Later that day I went over a friend's house for dinner. Like I said, nice and quiet.

The week between Christmas and New Year's Eve was also very quiet. No vacation time left, so I went in to work all four days (when the holidays are on a weekend, we only get one day off--next year we only get six holidays off :( ). I was a little put-out that the huge snowstorm that took out parts of North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York completely missed Maryland. I really wanted Monday off too!

For New Year's Eve I went over a friends house. She invited all the local SA from church over for snacks and movies. I brought Avatar, the extra special edition with 18 more minutes in it, and we decided to watch that. I really like that movie. I have to say, though it really was better the first time, when I wasn't aware of what was going to happen. It was a fun time, though. We stopped the movie shortly before midnight so we could watch Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's party (and see the ball drop) so we could toast with our non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice. Then we had to text everyone and wish them Happy New Year. That was kind of funny--and one of my nieces accused me of cheating since she still had to wait 3 hours for New Years :D

New Year's Day I went out and worked in the yard for quite a while. didn't quite complete the 'getting ready for winter' that I should have done two months ago, but the majority of the grass and weeds are gone now. Just one little patch left... Some mulching in March and it should be all ready for spring.

So this year I have three resolutions. I try to do resolutions every year, things to work on, and then do progress reports to myself, usually in May and then again in September. First, this is the year I am going to lose the weight. One pound a week, or 3 (6?) dress sizes by next year. Since dress sizes drop by two, I'm never sure if the difference between 10 and 12 is one or two. Anyway, that's one. Two is to work--at home, at work, and at church. I slack way to much. Three is to be more humble. I always think I'm right about everything; I really need to stop that. I figure there's more scripture study and prayer in my future. I figure that these three resolutions cover all four areas that I try to cover each year: physical, mental, social, and spiritual. I usually do one in each area, but this year I figure the work one counts for social and mental, and the humble one counts for spiritual and mental.

Ok, enough about me for now. We may get flurries again tonight. This morning it was kind of fun to see all that powdered-sugar looking snow everywhere. I didn't eve bother trying to sweep it away, I'm sure it's melted by now.

Ok, I think I'm done now. And kudo's to you if you made it through this really long post!

*my family rotates names--every year we have two siblings, and the following year it rotates to the next younger two until it wraps around to the older ones. Works very well, we don't have to buy for 8 people, just 2.

** Secret Jedi is a fun thing me and a group of friends do every year. Like Secret Santa, but since we all like Star Wars (that's how we met), we call it Secret Jedi. And we mail stuff throughout the month of December, usually leaving the nicest gift for Christmas Day. It's really fun.