Days 1081 & 1082: Ringing In The New Year

Since we were awake as we went from Day 1081 to Day 1082, I thought I might as well make this a combo post.

New Year's Eve ended up being a little bit of a crazy day.  Somehow I ended up deciding to make/bake a ton of things and Darling A refused to nap for longer than 20 minutes at a time.

Not a good combination.

But, all's well that ends well, right?

Everything ended up being just fine.  The cheese ball I made was delicious.  Sweet P devoured the shrimp we had.  These Chocolate Cherry Cordial Cookies I made were as delicious as they looked when I first laid eyes on them (although, we skipped the cherry icing.  We're not into super duper sugary stuff around here).  The stuffed mushrooms I made for the get together with friends later on went over just as well as they have the past two years (pretty darn).  And the egg strata I made for New Year's Day brunch ended up being a very appreciated easy (and yummy!) New Year's Day lunch.

We had a fun evening with the kids.  Began setting some goals for the New Year thanks to some great planning and incentivising from HH during dinner.  And then we got set to pop some poppers HH and the kids had picked up.

The poppers ended up being pretty disappointing.  But, we each got our paper crown, so who can really be disappointed in that?

I mean, everyone looks good in a paper crown.

Then HH picked up the babysitter, Darling A decided to wake up so the babysitter could get her wish of snuggling a cute baby all night long, rather than reading the book she'd brought, and HH and I got on our way.

We had a lot of fun with a few of our friends.  I ate too much food.  And I was so so so very tired to begin with that I had a little trouble controlling my mouth and said some pretty odd comments.  And I may have gotten a little overly comptetitive during a less-than-friendly round of "Word on the Street".  In my opinion, I was not the only comptetitive person there.  But, some may or may not agree.

All in all, it was a great evening with lots of fun and laughter and some super yummy steamers--new to me and HH.

And then this morning came way too early.

But, I can't help but compare how I was feeling this time a year ago.  And it's a night and day difference.  Last year I was sinking further into a very deep and dark depression.  I was struggling to even fake a happy face long enough to hang out with friends.  I felt quite alone and sad in the world.  I was seriously doubting the wisdom of the pregnancy I was in the middle of.  I was not at all excited about anything.

This year, I feel great.  My life is beautiful.  I have so much more room in my heart for loving my friends and family.  I'm really looking forward to all that this year will bring.  And I'm so grateful for that final pregnancy which brought me such an amazing gift in our darling Darling A.  She is beyond sweet and precious.

I could go on about that, but she just woke up from a late nap and is quite sad!

Happy New Year, Everyone!