ending the old year and beginning the new

Happy New Year!

The days following Christmas for us have been busy for us here in our house. My cousin Colleen called from Charlotte and made plans to come up with her friend  Jim for a few days to ring in the New Year with us here in Virginia.

 Colleen and Jim

One of my three grandsons, Xavier decided to come stay with us for a few days of his vacation. It was actually his first time alone without his older brothers and he did wonderfully. He hung out with us and played with my cousins dogs Doodle and Stitch. And he really enjoyed playing with his Christmas present that Grandma and Poppa (that's us) got him. It only took me forever to register the darn thing, but it was worth it! Encouraging reading was my plan so it seems to have worked, we spent a bit of cuddle time reading a Percy Jackson book while he was here. Yippee!

Xavier playing with his new Kindle

We were blessed with some beautiful weather here in Virginia that we were able to throw some ribs on the grill one of the days our company was here. I would have much preferred a white Christmas; it's the northerner in me, but I know my cousin would have never come and that would have been a big let down! I continue to hope for some white stuff before winter ends however.

And on another day while they were here, we went out for some chicken wings and a few beers and gave Jim a tour since it was his first time here visiting our home and our neck of the woods. Having company at the house is great but with such beautiful weather we just really needed to get out of the house for a drive and enjoy the sunshine while it lasted.

One night in honor of my beloved Aunt Frances I cooked my almost famous meatballs and spaghetti. Even though my Aunt - Godmother is no longer with us, her children and Colleen is the youngest of the four girls; are so used to me cooking them for her they've come to expect a meatball or two from their cousin Jen when she's has a kitchen within her reach.

Now Bill and I didn't make it to midnight, we were exhausted. Jim and Colleen awoke to texts from their respective sons which was nice. But Bill and I were blissfully cutting logs by then, dreaming of what the new year might bring.

As far as the New Year goes; I'm not big on making resolutions, for me its just is a big list of probable failures for the year that will end up making me feel badly about myself. But I would like to make an effort this year to get moving, be more active and to eat more healthfully. And if that resulted in some weight loss that would be GREAT because I could benefit from that. These past five years I have acquired some lazy habits both regarding diet and my activity level all of which I am not blind to or unwilling or unable to change. All of these areas of my life could use some work and for 2012 I plan on focusing on them.

How do you feel about making resolutions in the New Year?

What if any changes are you planning in your life in 2012?

Company & a road trip.

I got a call yesterday from my brother Paul, for those of you who don't know-he's my older brother who lives in Hawaii. Not a bad place to live believe me! He and his wife Lisa live there with their three grown children Christopher who is newly married to Nan (we went to their wedding last summer) our Goddaughter Amanda and our other niece Alyssa who is the youngest of the three. All the of them happily living such busy lives that when Paul decided to take some time off this fall to come and visit, the only one in the whole family that could squeak away for a quick vacay was Amanda.

It's good we're seeing them so soon, it's only been a bit more than a year since we were all together. I would rather have them all visit, but at this point I take anyone who can come and in the mean time maybe plans will change and some of the others will come.

The preliminary plan is this; they are going to fly into JFK and spend some time with my little brother Gerard and Denise and their kids, Sydney, Alexandra and my Godson Gerard. After spending time hanging out with the NY branch of our family and quote "eating some clams", then it's off to Washington DC by Amtrak. We're gonna drive up (me, Mom, Bill and our son Matthew should be on his days off ) and spend a day or two seeing the sights since my niece wants to and that's good enough for us!

I'm hoping Gerard, Denise and kids will decide to either drive or jump a train and join us..*hint hint!

Paul and Amanda want to go to the Smithsonian, I wonder if they realize it's about 10+ city blocks long in total and it would probably take a year to actually see it all; anyway it will be fun regardless.

Then back to my house - mom's next door so my brother can spend some time with us and Mom, she's getting up there in age and that's a priority for him.  So what's in Virginia besides us? There's open spaces, clean air, the changing of the leaves, crisp apples on my trees and there's always the pork!