The Adventures of Jane, Marley and Cat

1. There were moments of great things and moments of not-so-great things.  I imagine I grew from both.
2. I learned (again) the importance of surrounding myself with people who don’t do drama.
3. I gained two dogs: one big, one little.  One chocolate, one vanilla.  One “happy to be here”, one “drama”.
4. I gained a son and lost a son.  John is in California, Rob is back home.
5. At one point I had 47 people living with me in my home.  Alright, I exaggerated. A little.
6. Julia and Ben moved out and then got engaged.
7. I began to feel old physically, and realize that I run my emotions through my body.  That has to stop.
8. I grew out my hair.
9. I visited Carolyn in Long Beach, CA; Dad in Hawaii; Las Vegas with Jan (twice); and still love to be home most of all.
10. I read a lot more this year.
11. My favorite book of the year was The Gargoyle.
12. I wrote a lot more this year.
13. I gained and lost more weight than I care to discuss.
14. I did a lot of counseling, both at home and at work.
15. Speaking of work, I got the title but the raise hasn’t come yet. It will. Soon.
16. However, I love my job.
17. I get to work with my best friends.
18. I learned (again) that parenting never gets easier.
19. I enjoyed cooking with my son John.
20. I enjoyed learning with my daughter Julia.
21. I loved laughing with my son Robbie.
22. I enjoyed survived driving with my daughter Kjarsti.
23. I dated. Once.
24. I worked with a young padawan.
25. I drew really firm boundary lines with certain people. I am so grateful I did.
26. I learned to make really, really good Pörkölt from a real live Hungarian.
27. I left the church on my terms.
28. I found God again.
29. I correctly picked the winner of Project Runway and The Biggest Loser.  (Surely that is a gift, no?)
30. I did not correctly pick the winner of American Idol.
31. I started using Twitter.
32. I learned to appreciate the word “fuck”. Mostly because my friend Jan has mastered the art.
33. I went to few movies in the theater, but saw more movies than any other year previous.  (Thank you Netflix and HBO)
34. I learned to be more gentle with myself.
35. I channeled a new persona.
36. I discovered that black hides a multitude of sins.
37. I was introduced to a Russian that I visit from time to time: Stoli.
38. Everyone in my immediate family voted for the same candidate. It was a first.
39. I had some major highs and lows: battled with anxiety, and found great peace.
40. I thought I was going to be a grandmother. Not yet.
41. I had an unfortunate experience with Broccoli Cheese soup and my cupboard.
42. I experienced more menopausal symptoms.  (Not a highlight of the year)
43. I give the year a C+.  A passing grade, but it won’t get you into grad school.
44. I anticipate that next year will be much, much better.
45. It better be.

This is what our front yard looked like at 11:00 am Christmas morning.

Julia took the dogs outside for a little romp.  Here is Otis playing tug-of-war with her.

Julia is doing her best Dog Whisperer making Otis sit and stay before she throws the toy.

Otis likes to have snow thrown in his face.  He’s weird like that, but remember, he is a Lab.

Here is Jane following the guy with the snowplow.

And here is Ben (in his Christmas shorts and boots) retrieving Jane.  Too bad we can’t train Otis to do that.

Jane was so exhausted by her playing in the snow, she didn’t realize we had stuck a bow on her.  Had she known she would have sulked.  Oh wait, she sulked anyway.

Otis also had a Christmas nap, but he always wakes up with twice as much energy.

This is the prime rib before cooking. It was very, very good.

Ben and Julia helped me a great deal on Christmas because I was nursing a very sore foot.  Note the height differential on those two.

This is the right stuff.  See below.

Robbie had to work all day Christmas, so I captured this of Ben, Julia, and Kjarsti.

And here I am, doing my Julia Child, wishing all of you a prosperous and healthy New Year.

Tags: evil offspring, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, photos

Our Christmas story begins many years ago, before my youngest child was even born.  My sister was up from California visiting for the holidays, and we had gone to the store, with her list, to purchase the food necessary for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

While at the store, in the beverage aisle, we saw Ginger Ale and thought, “My, that would be a festive drink!” So we purchased a 2-liter bottle.

We drove home with all our purchases and proceeded to carefully carry them into the house over the snow drifts along the walkway.

When we pulled the bag carrying the Ginger Ale out of the back of the van, the bag broke and the bottle plummeted to the drive way where it exploded all over us, the van, and the drive way.

Not dissuaded by our accident, when we went to the store the next day to pick up those few things we had forgotten (Carolyn’s list was not complete!) we picked up another 2-liter bottle of Ginger Ale.

This time we made it all the way into the kitchen before dropping it on the floor and having it spray all over the kitchen and dining room.  We cleaned up the sticky mess and determined that we would never purchase Ginger Ale again.

Now, remembering that I have some kind of genetic problem with purchasing Christmas beverages, I went to the store this Christmas to pick up some things I needed for Christmas dinner.  While walking down the juice aisle in search of cranberry juice, I very carefully and deliberately stood in front of the selection of juices and repeated to myself over and over “not light, not light, not light” (much like Harry Potter in the first installment when under the Sorting Hat, “Not Slytherin, Not Slytherin”).  I despise Light Cranberry Juice, and was determined not to repeat that error.

Guess what I discovered upon reaching home.  Yes, you guessed it.

I reached for the GALLON jug of LIGHT FUCKING CRANBERRY JUICE.  I don’t even know why I was surprised.

So I did the most sensible thing I could think of.  I asked Julia to return it to the store and get the right kind of Cranberry juice.

I kid you not, we were on the way to the store and Julia realized she didn’t know where the juice was and we had to return to the house to get it.

Which just proves my theory: it is a genetic malfunction directly related to the purchase and safe storage of Christmas beverages.

Next year: water.  From the tap.

Tags: Christmas Cheer, Christmas Story, Genetic curses