happy new year!!!

Happy New Year! Ours started out tired...we stayed up 'til the wee hours of the morning, and Camille thought 9:15 was a good time to get up, despite her staying up until 12:30. We had such a good feast at church, the most fun was being in the kitchen with the younger girls. We made 20 pizzas (hot Buffalo wing pizzas, bacon pizzas, onions peppers broccoli diced-tomato pizzas, and some garlic and cheesepizzas...), and hot Buffalo chicken strips, and also some barbecue. We had them sit in the warmer pans in the sauce, and they were really good. Tossed salad and mini piggies in the blanket and veggies and dip and nachos and cheese sauce and pinapples and oranges and snow cones and root beer floats. Not all at once......but it was a good evening, encouraging and just plain fun.

Today, Aaron and Sonja and Camille took a little walk on the treadmill. And yes, Aaron is eating cookies.

Camille looks funny because she has undies on over her pants today.

Thanks to Emily, who has a bit more energy than I do today, this is all there is left in here of the tree. It always seems like, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" in here when we undecorate...."on the walls he left nothing but hooks and some wire...."

And our shopping trip on Wednesday ended at church, where we unloaded the food. Here is Janet, my sister Cheryl's daughter, and Mirielle.

Mirielle was laughing pretty hard. She opened the door to the walk-in freezer, and it literally flew off. We thought she broke it.....I was laughing so hard I couldn't stand up.

Oh dear.

oops.We were able to put it back on....we found out later that it is supposed to come off...but I guess there was snow in the way, and Mirielle just pulled it too hard....and it flew off the hinges. I think after the stress of all that shopping and thinking and planning, it was our comic relief.

So today starts a new year. I have been treadmilling daily, and a few times I wondered why I didn't do this more over the years. Now today the answer is loud and clear. Because I was so tired I felt awful, and I had Nap-on-the-brain for like 24 years straight. That is, if I had any free time at all, it was top priority. That's how I feel today. When one is very tired, it is hard to be focused on anything, hard to care about a handful of chips, hard to care about the sinkful of dishes. Because today I am tired. And I don't care. I am not going on the treadmill. ha. Maybe later. It is funny because today, millions of people are making these resolutions...

I might be going out and about today....Mali has her friend Carrie over (Carrie is one of my nieces who had leukemia), and I offered them a paying job....the dreaded cleaning of Charlotte Claire's room. Since it not only her room, but the toy storage area, and SOMEONE here is toy-crazy, it gets messy and disorganized fast. I told them I would give them ten bucks each if they straightened it out. It is totally worth it, to me. I also told them they could either save it, or I would take them some place to spend it. I also need diapers, since Camille only wears undies on the outside of her clothes, so I need to stop and get some. I totally meant to get some Wednesday, but it just wasn't on the list, and I forgot in store after store. I am glad I forgot, though, because BJ's has a $5 off coupon, which is really not a good deal, because when I walk out of BJ's, we are much poorer than when I go in.

We are having wings and mozzarella sticks and rye bread and dip and maybe some veggies for dinner....we skipped lunch. Well, the little ones had crackers...but our breakfast, thanks to Paul, who cooked while I dozed back off, we had homemade pancakes with homemade syrup (just melted butter with brown sugar, but they love it), scrambled eggs with sausage and cheese and onions and peppers, and bacon, orange juice, and coffee. How can we serve lunch after that?

I just realized that most places close early on New Years, so I should gather the girls and get going.......but Happy New Year, and I hope you are more optimistic about your resolutions than I am!!!