Holiday Edition

Happy New Year!

So i've been in hibernation the past few days/weeks/whatever, but i'm back now. Welcome to my life in 2009!

But first- the holidays.... I went home to Long Island for Christmas, where I spent time with family and friends and Bing (Crosby...cause it ain't christmas without Bing, in my opinion). Want to see some pictures?Ok so this is how we do christmas- the family comes over to my mom's house for dinner, followed by presents at Auntie Mo's. This was 'recession christmas', although you can't really tell from all the presents under the tree. But we have a big family, so sadly, they're not all for me.

This is Auntie Mo and Larry- I think you get a pretty good idea of what they're like.....


And this is Arielle and Ben, wearing their cheese apparell, given as a gift by Kim- student at the University of Wisconsin. The enthusiasm arielle showed when opening this gift was unparalleled. seriously. Some of my favorite gifts were LL Bean fleece-lined slipper booties, which i basically don't take off inside the house, a really cool old camera to add to my collection of old cameras, and some books (which are always appreciated).

Now we move on to friends...Friday after christmas, I met Celine in the city for lunch, which was awesome, since we haven't seen each other in two years! Sadly I didn't take any pictures, but it was fun catching up and she gave me 3 amazing mixes for xmas.
Friday night I went out with the boys (plus victoria) from high school. We saw Gran Torino and had dinner at Chili's, just like the old days. It had definitely been too long since we all hung out. To commemorate, we took a picture- similar to the one we all have framed from three (?) years ago. Here- take a look.
So Todd's eye's are closed in the picture on the left. And he and Victoria's dog (lily) is eating his face in the one on the right. But Matt and Marc are in back, and Victoria is the girl who's not me. We're quite the gang.




So I headed back to Philly and begrudingly had to work this past week for two and a half days. But then had a glorious four and a half days off, for which I went into my mini-hibernation to ride out the New Year. I've never been one for New Year's eve- too much expectation. So i spent my night laying low, listening to music, reading, pondering my resolutions and the year to come.
Here's what I came up with:
2009 will be the year I improve my posture, hopefully try my hand at driving a stick shift, control my frivolous spending (aka acknowledge the recession), and finally- try and control my compulsive book-buying. I have 3 stacks of books marked 'to read', and its about time i stopped adding to the piles. So i'm gonna do my best to widdle down the 'to read' into the 'have read' before indulging my vice of buying any more books.

I'm staying away from the traditional 'i'm going to go to the gym and lose 20 lbs' resolutions, as that would never work. But I am going to continue trying to live more healthy, and figure out my life. It's a work in progress, obviously. Lucky for you- you get a front row seat.