It's New Year's Again!

Happy Chinese New Year!

The new year celebrations start on

January 31st and go on for 15 days!

It's the Year of the Horse!

Mr. Tennis wishes he was born during

the year of the horse 

since he loves his horse and horse-back riding!

But, alas, he was born during the

year of the . . . 

snake!

This year, Maddy made small treat bags to

take to school for her classmates.

And what a timely coincidence,

they are currently studying

China in social studies!

She put some traditional gold chocolate coins along with a red pencil 

and  Chinese bracelet in

the bags.

People born during the year of horse are energetic, bright,

warm-hearted, intelligent and able!

Wow -- that sounds a lot like me, doesn't it!

Happy New Year!

Counting Down!

Yes, we are counting down . . . 

til this LONG, cold, boring, 

did I say long?

 month of 

January is finally over!

We shopped on cold weekends!
But no, we did not buy  another  stuffed animal!

Just heard that it was the coldest month in 100 years!

I knew it!

Ok, I admit we had a couple warm days here and 

there and I was able to get the snow and crud

washed off my big red jeep!

Muffy enjoyed a warm day in the sun!

It was so cold that Connor decided to grow

his hair out!

People --- this is big!

He has shaved his head since he was in high school and

hasn't had a real haircut for 11 or 12 years!

May look short to you, but this
is really long hair for him!

He looks so different and

I had forgotten that his hair is so black!

Don't tell him, but he is kind of a 

Mr. Tennis look-alike! :)

Did you see the itty-bitty little sliver of moon

this morning?

Cutest little thing ever!!

Photo courtesy of EarthSky.org

I just did some research for you.

Evidently the moon is waning toward a new moon

 (the second new moon for January) on January 30!

Get up early to see the little waning crescent moon 

for the new couple days!
It will make your day to see that sweet little moon in the sky!

Guess This Jingle!

"Ohhhhh, I wish I was an . . ."

Oscar Mayer Wiener!

Guess what we saw the other day?

The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile!

It was so cool!

We got to peak inside.  

It has a 

nice flat screen tv and lounge chairs.

The carpet has mustard stripes on it!

Lucky guy, the driver gets to enjoy the

perks of driving such a cool vehicle

AND
get hot dogs whenever he wants!  :)

Please try not to be jealous -- 

in addition to stickers, music sheets and postcards, 

both Maddy and I received

Wiener whistles!!!  

Watch for the Wienermoble visiting your town sooN!

Who's Got Talent?

Oh hey, 

I forgot to

tell you about the talented members

of the family and their "talents"

shown off at our Christmas celebration.

Yes, I am still on Christmas --
it's never too late to blog about a big event, is it!? 

And no, I am not one of the talented ones.

But the others really outdid

themselves again this year.

Mr. Tennis pulled out his trusty harmonica.

[seriously, is he too much or what?]
The photo was too dark, but
doesn't he look so jaunty in his new hat?

Connor -- also quite musical

demonstrated his ability to manufacture

a tune by blowing into a beer bottle.

[Do you think he has had much practice with beer bottles?]

Philip is quite the juggler!

Should have known as he has excelled at juggling being Doctor Dad,

so not too big of a surprise there.

Miss Janie showed us how cute Walt's new

firefighter coat looked on her!

Walt was so busy with the fire extinguisher that

he escaped the camera.

Unfortunately, no one got photos of
Maddy, Catherine, me or Baby Harry
showing off our talents!

But, take my word for it -- we were fabulous!

Fun calendar! Crazy cats!

Weekend Update!

I seem to be falling a bit

behind in my blog updates lately.

January is not my favorite month and

it just puts me into a bit of funk --

Every. Single. Year.

:(

The month is too long, too cold, too everything.

But

we must forge ahead, right!

Photo courtesy of Huskers.com

So, we tried something different on Saturday night.

We went to a Husker Women's Gymnastics Meet.

Photo courtesy of Huskers.com

Actually, it was a combo -- Wrestling and Gymnastics together!

They called it "A Rumble and A Tumble"!
It was loads of fun -

those girls are seriously talented
and so are the wrestlers!
Both teams won their meets!

And even though it was two very popular sports,

it was not too crowded.

We saw the ever famous (and a little weird)

Lil Red!

Two Things - One Seriously Yummy!

Two things:


1 --The Polar Vortex!
Brrrrrrr!
Whoa -- we got hit with it this week
and that was wicked cold!
A heat wave of 20 will hit today!
Yesterday it was -10 with a wind chill of -30.
Luckily, it warmed up to a balmy 5 degrees!!





And
2 -- Nothing Bundt Cakes!
Have you tried

them yet?

Oh my word!

Run . . do not walk,

do not pass go . . .

Run to the nearest store!
These cakes are so delish!

Plus, the store has free samples.
If I lived closer, I would be there daily!
Maddy had a white chocolate raspberry cake

for her birthday.
It was so very good!

I probably would have eaten the whole thing

myself, but we shared it with our

neighbors at their Santa party!
I think it was almost more popular than Santa!
:)



Goals for the New Year!

Happy 2014!

I just love an even-numbered year, don't you!

It's one of those odd things about me.  :)

 

While I don't generally write down resolutions,

I make them in my head and

my top 3 are:  exercise,

drink more water,

become a better and nicer version of myself

 

I saw this pinterest list on another blog and

decided to give it a try too.

 

 

So, here are my 2014 Goals

 

A bad habit I'm going to break:

Eating too much chocolate!
But really, is there such a thing as too much chocolate??

 

A new skill I'd like to learn:

Knitting.

 

A person I hope to be more like:

 My daughter-in-law who is super sweet and very organized!

 

A good deed I'm going to do:

Become a volunteer --
maybe a Meals on Wheels volunteer. 

 

A place I'd like to visit:

Orlando :)

 

A book I'd like to read:
Whatever Maddy is reading. 
We read her school assigned books together
so we can chat about them.

 

 A letter I'm going to write:
To my daughter - hoping to impart some life lessons
and humor!

 

A new food I'd like to try:

 Vegetables.  Really -- any vegetables!

 

I'm going to do better at:
Decluttering and not wasting time
watching too much HGTV!

How about you? 
Any goals you'd like to share?