Are we still having a happy new year?

It's a good question. And the answer, for me, is yes.








But really
I just wanted to show off
these great New Year party hats
and
my adorable family.














































Dave was on call overnight at the hospital so we had to deliver his hat. Can you tell he was sooo excited?

Making hats with the family. It doesn't get better than that. Trust me.

It's really not too late, have a Happy New Year.

And I hope you don't mind but next week will be my crafty Christmas catch up. There are many things to show and tell. And even though Christmas was sooooo long ago, this is my blog and I can do what I want.

a great poem about lousy pie

I meant to post this way back, but I disremembered. Listen to how cool this is. Little did we know, but around the same time I was having a pie and poetry evening in OH, my friend in NY was having a pie and poetry experience all her own. She has gracefully given permission for me to share her poem.


Of Lousy Pie and Cellulite
a poem by Charlotte Mountain



Diner waitress, she’s pigeon-toed

Offers pie, it’s a-la-mode

Tight-lipped and frost-nipped

It was December or November

I disremember



Although I am no connoisseur

The pie it tasted quite impure

I needed quick a water-cure

Perhaps liqueur

I am unsure



Of pie, of ice cream

I don’t blaspheme

The taste of both was so oppressive

Aggressive, depressive and in-digestive



Diner waitress you bedlamite

Of lousy pie and cellulite

birthday

Yesterday, I built myself a cake



and made a wish.

Happy New Year to me.

the book of 2009

My BOOK for 2009 arrived in the mail today.


{image from jill bliss website - there are lots of pretty things over there}

The year is still young. Time to get organized!

gray cloud Cleveland style

Because I drove my honey to work early this morning, and because I just finished off the last of his hot chocolate, and because I just read an email from Sara O. A. who "just wanted to say 'hi' and make sure [I] haven't morphed into a gray cloud Cleveland style", I am putting out a little ramshackle post instead of crawling back under my warm covers.
Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year!
Is it really January 8th?

If you've been wondering where I've been, I think Sara got it right. I morphed into a gray cloud Cleveland style. And now it's time to come back.

Our Christmas season was sweet. My favorite part, which should be no surprise here, was the music and the singing. Malcolm's renditions of "Angels we have heard of on high, each-ly singing o're the planes...", "Feliz Navidad", and "Deck the Halls" really had a way of ushering in the Christmas spirit. Christmas Eve, Dave and I burnt some midnight oil making our gifts for the boy. Malcolm woke to a little kitchen and some felt food. "A little kitchen! For me!" (It still has some finish work to be done, but in the mean time it is getting played with as is.) A few days later, my parents, Megan, Benny-boy, and Hillary Kate arrived with a sleigh (van) full of cheer. All the way from Utah, bless their hearts. We rang in the New Year together, I made cinnamon rolls for the 1st time, and before I knew it, the family was backing out of the driveway and Malcolm and I were waving goodbye. There was a lump and then there were tears. I tried to explain to the little two and a half year old that I was happy AND sad. He snuggled on my lap and let me rock him and that was just-the-thing.

The gray cloud is still hovering. But, here is my little bit of inspiration for 2009 - received, like all good things, while humming in the shower: "This little light of mine." 'Let it shine', I thought, that will be my theme for this year, and then I thought, that will be our family theme for this year (growing up we had such yearly themes, I'm trying to remember what they were, help me out family), and then I thought, we'll make it into a collage and hang it where we see it everyday and add to it throughout the year, 2009 Let it Shine, and then I thought, that rhymes, cool.

So there you go. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 2009, Let it Shine. Catchy.

This post was brought to you today by cold toes on a cold morning, hot chocolaty liquid, and an email in which I am told "you're really cool."