Happy New Year's Eve!

New Year's Eve snuck up on me again like it tends to do. But this time, I was already in full on planning mode and had groceries bought, laundry done and managed to get the Christmas tree and some bags of trash and unwanted stuff out of the house before party time. So bring on the friends and good times. I was ready for it. Nacho had to work again this holiday so it was going to be me and the folks hanging around if I didn't invite a few friends over. And since we've managed to do the same early NYE party countdown for the past 4 years or so, it was nice to hang again with the same close group. I'm glad I have them. So happy new year and here's to hoping there will be more of the same in 2015. I'd be very happy with that. Cheers!

Welcome, 2014!

So I wrote a whole post about our little outing today and promptly lost it when my mobile blogging app decided to take a break. Harumph. Oh well. I suppose the mantra of the day is stay calm and be flexible. Like when we got out in the freezing cold to join some friends for a New Year's Day dim sum lunch in Flushing and then there were no seats left for us at the reserved tables (to be fair, we were nearly 15 min. late).  Friends offered to shove in, but the thought of holding a squirmy kid on my lap while I tried to enjoy a meal sounded like pure torture. No, thanks. So we turned and made our way out of the giant mall, and back through the amazing grocery store with its piles of exotic fruits and down the street. Surely we could do better than this for our first outing of the new year. And as luck would have it, one of our favorite Vietnamese places up the road had plenty of open tables and we settled in to an enjoyable family meal in relative peace. This was more like it.

Something about January 1st always sets the tone for my monthly, if not yearly, outlook. Doing something together as a family, trying something new, and being out in the city we love were all good omens. Even though I woke with a horrible back ache and stomach pains that fortunately died down with some ibuprofen and a little sleeping in, I managed to make the most of the day.  I didn't decide to stay home or just give up. And given how easy that is when it's 20 some-odd degrees out, I was proud of myself for not just muddling through but really enjoying the day. The girls were champs during our about-face in the first restaurant despite Elisa's questioning when we were going to see her friends. And I was delighted to hear Carolina tell me the big bowl of rice I ordered for her was "delicious." Elisa gorged on the lemongrass beef bits I gave her from my vermicelli bowl. And Nacho quietly gulped down an iced coffee while Carolina screamed abuse at me for "more CAFE!" out of mine.  Ah yes. She likes what she likes. 

The two girls went practically ballistic when we bumped into the Burns family post-dim sum and joined them for a sweet slushy treat at Quickly.  So. much. shrieking. Geez. Carolina can take it up a few octaves these days, and Elisa just winds her up with taunts and tickles until I'm ready to say BASTA YA! But again, staying calm, I just smiled and shushed them until it was time to hit the train home.  The first family nap of the year was a perfect way to end the activity of the day and now we're bracing for re-integration into school life again tomorrow--yikes!--and a coming snow storm for Thursday/Friday that will see the first real accumulation of the year (8-10 inches most are predicting).  So here's to all that's yet to come in '14, and staying calm and positive about it. I'm going to work on that the most this year. It's going to be great. No really.

New Year's Eve, Baby!

Out with the old and in with the new. Maybe that's why I love the excitement around New Year's Eve. By this time post-Christmas, I'm feeling a bit sluggish and maudlin, so it helps to have something to perk me up.  And yesterday was the perfect chance to clean up the apartment a little bit, invite friends over for an early New Year's celebration and spend the night really just happy to be with fun people on a cold night. I've never been one to go out on NYE and being a mom has made that much easier. Who wants to track down a babysitter for one expensive night anyway? So we ordered pizza, made giant chocolate chip cookies and stocked the fridge with plenty of Martinelli sparkling cider for the kids.  Even our quick trip out to get some junky NYE stuff at the dollar store was fun. We picked out plastic noise makers, colorful 2014 glasses and two confetti poppers. And boy did they POP! Well, at least mine did. And glittering confetti was up and all over the living room. I have to say it was beautifully festive if a bit of a mess to clean up. Our 7 p.m. toast coincided with the countdown in the Canary Islands, so Nacho, Carmen and company got to down their grapes as the clock struck midnight.  It all came together in a blurry mess of kids and screams and prosecco toasts.  But there you have it, New Year's Eve is supposed to be a bit of a blur anyway, right? Most of our guests headed out by 9 p.m. and we almost let the girls stay up to see the "real" ball drop, but by about 10:45 p.m., they were toast. So off to bed they went and that's when Nacho turned and asked me if we were going to make it til midnight. Of course! I was feeling up to the challenge and so we did. More than excitement, I felt ready to embrace the new year.  Even though 13 has always been lucky for me, I feel like 2014 has a nice ring to it. Looking forward to all it holds...