Ringing In

We had friends here for New Year's Eve.  It's become a tradition for everyone to bring their favorite appetizer, and we sit around and polish off the holidays with a year end splurge.  Since we are all ridding our pantries of the extra calories and sweets that we don't want to tempt us in the new year, the spread is always quite elaborate.....and indulgent.  It obligates us to stay up until midnight just so we can eat it all.

2-0-1-2

2-0-1-2

And Mexican train with brand new dominoes.  (I won!  Maybe this means my year will be lucky?)

I'm stepping into the new year lightly...trying to enjoy the last few days that my daughter is in town while also trying to get things in order to get back to a normal routine and homeschool schedule.  

Christmas is packed away.  The house always looks so naked at first.  I tried to keep things super simple for the winter decorating scheme.  I'm craving simplicity in every area.

I also got my "Christmas cards" mailed.  It became very evident to me in early December that we had WAY too much going on, so I made a conscious decision to send out New Year cards instead.  It felt very freeing.  I got them all addressed yesterday afternoon while watching The Help with Mom and Hannah.  Feels good to have that crossed off the list.

We have friends from Georgia arriving this afternoon to spend two nights with us.

Clean sheets.

Scrubbed bathrooms.

Swept rugs.

Sometimes it's nice to have a reason to get fully organized.  And by "fully organized" I mean hide all the piles from plain sight and try to forget they are there.  ;-)