Monthly Archives: January 2012

The holidays are over and we’re returning to reality, the responsibilities of work, managing finances, and keeping up with our home life. It’s been a lovely vacation! We spent the week before Christmas in Texas, New Years vegging at home, and in the past few weeks we’ve had over 10 glorious days off together. Perfection! Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been productive too: going to work, cat-sitting for a friend, and hashing out our accounts, insurances and budgets for the year. To round off our last few days of relaxation and holiday merriment we’ve watched countless episodes of our favorite Irish TV series Ballykissangel curled up in our pajamas by the lights of our Christmas tree and electric fireplace, rented two great flicks from Redbox, drank mugs of steaming hot cocoa and glasses of champagne, watched the Packers football game, challenged each other to lots of Mario Kart, Guinness World Records, and Party games on the Wii, mowed down on plenty of tasty eats, played some board games, slept in, and enjoyed our first legit snowfall of the season! We also finally got to go ice skating at Fountain Square (bonus: while it was snowing!) which was so much fun, and then we had the pleasure of driving through an absolute white-out of a snow storm in Northern Kentucky where the highway all but disappeared, visibility was literally reduced to the nose of your own vehicle, the roads were a sheet of ice, nobody drove in a lane because there were no lanes to be seen, everyone went less than 20 mph, and after we got through it there was a 15-car pile up on the bridge and they closed the highway. At least it was exciting!

It’s been so awesome to have these days off together to do nothing but what our little hearts desire! It’s been so awesome to relax, catch up on sleep, wear our pajamas all day, and exercise our brains with funny Irish humor and lots of games. We still have to put away our Christmas decorations, clean the house, do laundry, go grocery shopping, catch up on work commitments that have accumulated over the holidays, and countless other things. But we’ve had a great time, and to us it’s really important to cherish our down time together while we have it – because come next week, we’re both back to working 7 days a week, oh joy! Boy, is it going to be tough to get back to hunkering down and working hard after so much vegging, but if we want good changes to come our way in 2012, we have to work for them. So here we go!

Hope you enjoyed the rest of your holiday vacation and that the ease back into your regular routine is gentle and stress-free!

Our New Years Eve was spent just the way we like it – simply.

Because I had to work, this was the first NYE that we haven’t spent in Milwaukee, though we were still able to honor our annual NYE traditions. After reading about all the fun-sounding New Years celebrations Cincy has to offer (ice skating downtown at Fountain Square with live music, food, drinks, a ball drop, and fireworks!), I’m thinking that it might be fun to branch out a bit next year – wear something sparkly, go out on the town, perhaps meet up with some friends earlier in the evening? I don’t know. We love our low-key NYE tradition and always look forward to how fun and relaxing it is, but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to change it up a bit once or twice a decade.  Or at least combine forces and go out earlier in the night and then come home and tuck ourselves away for a night of movies and games. We’ll see what next year brings!

Yesterday I worked and we had some excitement when a fire started in the kitchen and the building had to be evacuated. Luckily we weren’t too busy yet so getting everyone out was easy enough. Because it’s a huge historical landmark three fire trucks showed up immediately, though the fire was already out. It took over an hour for firefighters to get the smoke out and the building smelled awful for the rest of the day, but since nobody was hurt (thankfully) and there was no major damage I can say that I appreciated the mid-morning year-end excitement…and I also kind of didn’t mind getting paid time and a half to stand outside for over an hour to watch the madness unfold. After work, I went to work again, this time to strike a show at the theatre. Spent a few hours unscrewing hinges, ripping apart wood, and tearing down arches before I was able to retire at home and ring in 2012 with the Ted.

But when I did make it home for the night, boy was it wonderful! We ordered the most savory carry-out burgers and seasoned waffle fries from a restaurant we’ve been wanting to try, and they were big, messy, and delicious! Ted got a mushroom Swiss and I went with the southwestern, topped with onion straws and jalapenos. We ate them on the floor of our living room, wearing our pajamas and wrapped in blankets while we watched The Change Up, which kept us laughing the whole night. And I may or may not have eaten an entire pint of Graeter’s black raspberry chip ice cream. Which was also insanely delicious. We took a break to connect our Wii to the wifi network so we could play Mario Kart against Ted’s sister and nephew in Milwaukee, turned on the New York City ball drop and count down (of course Lady Gaga would dress up as the ball), and celebrated the new year with a midnight kiss and glasses of Door County Sparkle cherry wine champagne before retuning to our Wii Party game. Totally glorious night! It was so relaxing, and funny, and tasty, and just all around perfect!

I hope your NYE was just as wonderful! How did you ring in the new year? Please share!