Another Break

I took another unplanned break from my blog. I've thought every day about writing but either never got around to it or couldn't write a coherent sentence to save my life. Anyway, I'm back and hope I can keep going steady through the year... that's not a resolution though. Tee hee hee

As far as resolutions go, I don't like them. I said as much last year but I made some goals for myself. I said I would think positively and I did. Not every thought I had was positive, but I worked on sending out positive energy and thinking in a more affirmative rather than negative way. I feel as though I made progress and I'm going to continue to work on that way of thinking this year... last night I even picked up The Secret, a book I got last January. Yeah, took me a year to read even a single page. I continue to amaze me.

I also resolved last year to be more financially responsible. I kept track of our bank accounts better and paid only one overdraft fee all year - an unfortunate math error was to blame. I hate math. While we're not really better off financially this year, we did a better job all around in paying bills and managing money so that when my Christmas bonus came it didn't get spent on catching up on bills like it normally is. It was a good year. Maybe I'll have to work on a post recapping the good things in 2008.

As I'm sure I've said before, I'm a cookbook addict. I read them for fun, to de-stress, to research new ideas, to fall asleep - yeah, weird. I rarely make a recipe the way it's written; I tailor it to my family's tastes, MY tastes mostly. Anyway, I was perusing Allrecipes.com tonight and stumbled upon a recipe for cilantro lime rice. I love rice, I love lime, I HATE cilantro. I don't know why, it just tastes awful to me, kind of a tin foil taste maybe? Oh, and if I take a bite of something with too much in it (and don't immediately spit it out) my lips go numb. I googled substitutes for cilantro since making lime-rice just doesn't sound appealing. Turns out that lots of people hate cilantro and it either tastes like biting foil/pennies or soap. Wow, who knew? I'm not alone - not even in the lip numbing category! So if you hate cilantro like me, a good substitute (that I can't swear by because I haven't tried it) is a mixture of parsley and celery leaves, and maybe even a bit of mint as well.

Speaking of cookbooks, when I was 17 I bought a cookbook called Where's Mom Now That I Need Her. A friend of mine had one that her mother had bought her and I just had to have it. A month ago my boys asked me separately if they could have my copy when they moved out. My answer, "No, that's my cookbook but I'd be happy to buy it and give you all my recipes too." The day after Christmas we went to the mall to exchange the Crocs Mammoths (in grape and black) we bought Lindsay and discovered that the bookstore that's been there forever is closing and everything was 40% off. And they had one copy of that cookbook - a new release that's been updated since I bought mine almost 20 years ago. I've been looking through cookbooks for easy recipes to add since then.

On to family news. We had a great Christmas. We went to my mothers house with my brothers and their families. We haven't all been at my mom's house for Christmas at the same time in 25 years! I cooked so much in the last three weeks I could feed an army, and I still have tons of food left. Last year I was recovering from surgery and lost 12 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years. This year not so much. I made chili and zuppa toscana for the in-law's family Christmas party, tons of snack food for Christmas Eve, mini quiches and hash-brown casserole for Christmas morning, took a ham AND turkey to Mom's house on Christmas Day, cranberry-barbecue meatballs, artichoke dip, and buffalo chicken dip for the New Year's Eve party. Seriously, tons of food there - and none of it good for us.

The boys went snowboarding at Steamboat the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Christmas, at Winter Park the Sunday after, and are now at the cabin with my in-laws snowmobiling. They're really enjoying this break.

We went to a New Year's Eve party on Wednesday night. Same friends as last year but just us two couples, plus all the associated kids and their girlfriends. I think there were eleven kids total. The adults played Gin for hours, had a blast, and I was sober when I drove home at 3:45 in the morning. I didn't want to experience the same hangover as last year and the hubby was drinking. It's amazing how clear the roads are at that hour, and not a single sobriety checkpoint like I'd expected. I guess most parties ended earlier than ours did.

The kids all go back to school on Tuesday and the hubby goes back in just over two weeks. My classes don't start until March but I'll have two at the same time, no fun. Jake graduates at the end of May, the hubby has changed his degree so he'll be finished in a year and a half and I should graduate this coming December. We're going to be all graduated-out soon. We're moving forward with C graduation plans. We've found a nice place for the party and starting to work on the menu. Decorating, guest lists, invitations and all the other little details will be left to the last minute if I'm not careful. Lucky for me, I'll have the GF to help! Thanks hon.