New Year

New Year's isn't a big deal to me.  When I was a kid, it just wasn't emphasized in our house.  Sometimes Grandma Mary would come up for dinner on New Year's Day and that would make it more of a holiday with a big dinner and all the stuff she'd bring with her, like cashews and pepperoni bread from the old Italian bakery in Rochester.  As a teenager, I became aware that other people celebrated New Year's Eve quite a bit, but I think I spent all my new year's eves with a high school boyfriend.

In my 20's, I had moments where I wanted to ring it in, but it never quite got there. 

Then I got together with Todd, officially on December 30, 2007.  It gave the New Year thing some meaning.   Not the staying up and partying thing.  Just some meaning.  This New Year's Eve was the first one we made it to midnight since that one long ago where we joke that I came back and never left on the 31st.  We had had Chinese food that New Year's Day, a tradition we continued until this year as we can't find any Chinese we like in Oswego anymore.   

On December 30, Tammy came over and gave the kids (and me!) Christmas gifts.  Abbey is so in love with the sparkly and fluffy outfit, she's wearing right now at her first day back to school.  Adam doesn't fit properly in his frog slippers, but has been sleeping with them, sad they aren't staying on his feet.  Both kids have been using their new Lego table and will not be happy to find it has been taken upstairs today while they were at school...but we play up there most weekdays in the winter so they will get much use of it!  And my favorite gift is a mug with photos.  I've been making more and more photo gifts for others and it's nice I got one for myself.  Tammy doesn't know this, but I've also been coveting a cast iron griddle for some time, which I also received and the k-cup organizer is something we've tossed around for a bit.  Besides Todd and my sister Carolyn, Tammy is the only other person that always seems to know what to get me!

Sentimental that it was our anniversary, Todd and I cuddled up on the couch that night...only to fall asleep.  Ha.  Holidays, kids and long work days sure do take their toll!

Tammy and I grabbed lunch on New Year's Eve at Canale's, my favorite present.  Nice to sit down and eat in one of my favorite spots and just talk.

We had a steak dinner on New Year's and took down the tree.  He took the A-team to the office to get the plow and plow out so I could take down the ornaments.  He put the tree, after some cursing, as Dads do, out to the curb.  It left a complete mess but the Dyson sucked it up!  Love that thing.  Abbey has been saying "Bye Christmas tree" since.

We ended the day with the kids actually in bed by 8:15pm for a change (after an exhausted Abbey exhausted us with the mother of tantrums) and watched the new Red Dawn.

I have to say the New Year is more about the time I have coming up after stressful and crazy fall and holidays.  January is becoming something I look forward to.  No holidays, birthdays, vacations or commitments.  Time to clean out and organize.  Literally...and mentally.  Truth be told, I did a mini clean out of kid stuff before Christmas, sending Elizabeth and my sister Sarah some stuff and taking a car full to the Pregnancy Care Center. I clean out emails as well as dressers.  Started today already.  I have a bag for the Salvation Army.  Of course, with three kids, this process is very much slowed!  

Each year is faster.  And brings things I didn't even consider on that New Year day.  Off to pick up the kids.  No time even for spell check!