Post-Christmas Mode

Hi, B.

I feel bad for not responding to your New Year's post; I wanted to, but all I had the spark to write was "Back at ya!", so I left it alone. That didn't seem to do justice to the eloquent and touching words you gave me. I'm still not quite inspired to write, this morning, even though it's fairly quiet and snowing like crazy. I had all good intentions of getting up early and going to the gym, but an inch of the white stuff is enough of an excuse to drop that idea.

We had a fantastic New Year's party; K's Tapas Dinner was a huge hit. I am planning to write out for my mom How To Have a Tapas Party, so I'll send it along when I get it done. We had so much fun! There were eight of us all together, the six of us, plus Kim and Josh. Perfect number and combination of people. We drank white wine sangria and excellent red wine from California, followed by some champagne or sparkling wine that K had picked up at Whole Foods that afternoon. I should have stuck with one of the three, instead of indulging in a little (ok, a lot) of each, because Thursday I spent the better part of the day nursing a mixed-alcohol headache. Nonetheless, we had an absolute blast, all of us cooking and preparing and serving and eating together, moving between the kitchen (a hundred degrees and too small for 8 people, lots of laughing) and the dining room (festively decorated with purples and reds and golds, floating candles and R's new dimmer switch lighting it all up). By midnight, we were all planted on the couches in front of the tv, watching various NY's moments in various cities, saying "I'm so full!" and "Oh my God, I've never eaten that much in one night!" I have to say, we have thrown kickass New Year's parties here at the house for the past two years, following in the tradition of kickass New Year's parties at my friend S' house for the last ten years, but this was one of the best New Year's Eves I have ever had!

Yesterday, J got up early and took JJ to the visiting model train exhibit at the History Museum downtown. I declined the offer, although I'm a big fan of that museum, in favor of sitting in front of the tv with a pot of coffee and some Aleve. They got home around 2:00; JJ thought it was the most awesome thing he'd done in ages. He immediately went upstairs and took J's model trains (from childhood) out from underneath our bed, dusted them off, and has been sequestered in his room with his BFF, C, ever since, trying to make them work like new. They've made progress and I'm impressed. Those trains are probably 50 years old and they've actually got them running. C spent the night last night and I was tickled to see that at 10:30 they had both voluntarily unplugged their DS's and fallen asleep. Both had been up past midnight the night before so I'm sure they were exhausted. They woke up this morning to a winter wonderland again, but all I hear so far is the scritchy-scratchy sound of the little wheels on the track. No interest in going outside whatsoever. Boys. They crack me up :-)

Today I feel motivated to clean, clean, clean. My house is in such disarray, even though it's mostly in tidy piles here and there, I feel completely out of sorts with my surroundings. My feng shui is all messed up! So I wrote out a long, detailed list of the things that need to be done, both immediate and long-term goals. Of course, the task of separating all the boxes, bags, wrapping and bows is far more daunting than typing out new file labels and re-organizing my file cabinets (I'm such a teacher), but obviously, the former is more pressing than the latter in terms of my settling back into my normal life. I think I'll begin with something simple and methodical, like taking apart my Victorian village, before I try to do the random stuff. I don't mind the cleaning up part; I love tasks that have such visible and tangible results. I do hate the empty feeling in my house when all the decorations are gone, the extra lights are removed and everything seems so plain and dull for a few days, until I get used to the "normal" house again. I'm all about the bling and the sparkle; I should find a way to incorporate more into my every day decor.

Ok...enough....I am actually getting itchy to start. By the way, I don't know if you read Kim's blog, but have you heard about Goodreads? http://www.goodreads.com/ If not, check, it out. We were both surprised to find it and not have known about it. I'm still new and perusing the site, but I'm excited to get more connected with it.

I am also planning to call and chat today, if you're around. I did get your New Year's phone message and it got cut off in the middle so I didn't hear the whole thing. I didn't hear it until we were rushing out the door for dinner, then yesterday, I'm telling you, I couldn't have held a conversation with a snail. I did want to write, though, in the event that we don't verbally connect until later.

Hope you're still enjoying the s**t out of your vacation!!

Love, A