Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all had a great holiday season and are starting January with pleasant memories. I always expect January to start with a bang, as if I'm going to accomplish all my goals for the year in the next couple of days. Ha! I'm not even setting any resolutions this year, as I know my past track record, and it's pretty dismal. Although last year I did do pretty well at the 21-day challenge at A Bowl Full of Lemons. I definitely need something like that to keep me on track. This year, though, I see as more of a contemplative, slower-paced year. Not sure why, but I do. Anyway, before I get to waxing more about that, I just wanted to share a few pics from Christmas. It was quite relaxing this year. Right up my alley.

I decorated a bit, but didn't feel the need to go all out.

Just a bit on the mantle,

some lights to cozy up the place,

and some greenery thrown around a bit here and there.

Understated but still festive. And a whole lot easier to clean up.

We started off the holidays by getting to babysit some cutie patooties (aka little brothers)

and then hosted Christmas Eve for some of Ralph's family.

Lots of laughs were had by all

even if the teenagers didn't want to admit it.

Christmas day brought lots of silver and black, natch.

And wait, are those actual smiles on teenagers' faces??

Oh, yeah, especially since they got the video games they wanted. [Side note: Teen 2 said that one of his friends asked him why he didn't buy the newest video game right when it came out. He replied, "Why buy it with my own money when I can just wait for Christmas and get it for free?" Smart kid.]

So lots of family time

accompanied by lots of food

(one of my few culinary successes, wish I'd taken pics of Ralphs' AWESOME pozole)

left us all fat and happy.

Looking ahead to 2012, I've tried to do what some others have done and pick a word for the year to focus on. Words like "believe," "love," "simplify," and "look" tend to be bandied about. I've tried to think of one, and even came up with a list, but none seem to just jump out at me. I think I'll need longer to contemplate it. I know most people do this before the new year starts, so they're all ready. Being the procrastinator that I am, I'm behind as usual. But since I have the feeling that this year is going to be a more slowly-moving, (hopefully that means peaceful?) year, I'm not going to get to worked up about it. Some of the words I've come up with so far are:

seek

purpose

do

trust

fearless

choose

rejoice

believe

create

focus

clarity

calm

strength

Do any of you do this? How do you go about picking a word? Or does the word pick you? In either case, happy picking, and Happy New Year.