It's a New Year!

First, a little update about our holidays (and I am a horrible mother and barely took any pictures...).  Skip had to work the nights of the 24th-28th, so our actual holidays were pretty much shot.  So we had a little respite trip up to Algoma the week before.  A couple of trips to wineries, a brew pub, and a nice anniversary dinner really did us some good.  Here's one of the only pictures I took up there, just me and P being goofy with socks: 

As for the holidays themselves, on the 24th, I went to the grocery store and bought shrimp and steaks, the traditional Preston Christmas Eve dinner that we have been having at my grandma's house for god-knows how long.  Even though I didn't prepare them in a bustling kitchen or Jeff Smith style, they were good nonetheless (jalapeno-butter sauce... yummm).  Skip, however, donned the warm jacket and gloves, and braved the cold to cook the steaks out on the grill like we always do at Grandma's.  Our dinner was really delicious.  After dinner I made a quick trip out for some shopping, then Skip went to work at 11.

We woke up Christmas morning and opened presents when Skip got home from work, before going to mass at 9.  Preston was a champ at church (It's usually just me and P at church, and it's been getting harder and harder for me to handle him by myself since he's so squirmy, so I was proud of him.  We sat in the back and he was mesmerized by the nativity scene and the little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes...).  Anyways, we got home from church, and I successfully conquered a delicious, rich Hollandaise sauce to top Eggs Benedict for brunch.  Butter was my friend this Christmas. :)

After brunch, Preston napped and Skip went to bed while I packed up the car to head south.  We hadn't planned to go down to CL at all, but I figured a little surprise would be nice for the fam.  Preston and I got down to Nancy and Jim's and had a great dinner with some various Prestons, complete with after dinner card games and Christmas Vacation.  Preston had a little bit of a meltdown at the end of the night, but overall did really great with everyone, and clearly was spent by the time we got back to Mom and Dad's:

Harrisons got to Mom and Dad's on Sunday afternoon, and we all went out to Amy and Mike's for a "cousin's visit."  It was really great to see the Cederlunds and their girls, as well as Allison and Jeff, and Pete and Emily.  Amy and Mike were gracious hosts, and I've decided some day I want a bar like theirs in my basement!  I figured I should come back to Wisconsin and work a little bit in the month of December... so we came back north and 3 days later I was off work again :). 

New Year's Eve morning Mannings came up and we had a great lunch of antipasto (i.e. prosciutto, salamis, olives, crusty bread, cheeses, wine... officially making the month of December my best and worst eating month EVER).  We opened some gifts and visited some more, then crashed until the evening.  We had a super fun hibachi (tepanyaki) dinner with my family, even though Preston wasn't such a fan of the flaming oil on the grill... After dinner we went and visited with Ziemers, Hackers and Soon-to-be-Coopers, then came home and passed out by about 10.  So much for ringing in the new year!  On New Year's Day, we celebrated Eckel Christmas over at Harrisons, which was a very nice time.  We had steak and shrimp (this time the real deal) again, and I fried asparagus Paula Deen style.  Yes, I am now oozing all the oil, butter, and fatty deliciousness I had over the past 2 weeks...

Which brings me to some resolutions for the New Year.  Skip and I have decided to make a few changes to our lifestyle to help balance out the weird schedule we carry.  We're actually finally in a routine of sorts with our lives, albeit one that most people can't relate to or will ever have, but it seems to be working for us.  However, we also want to refocus a bit on keeping ourselves (bodily) healthy, keeping our house in order, and really nailing down some other important things in our lives before any other "big changes" might come along... So, each day, we will be keeping each other in check to make sure we've 1.) eaten healthy and done some type of exercise, 2.) cleaned up the house, and 3.) managed/acknowledged something financially.   I've posted before that our crazy summer really didn't lend us much time or $ to work on anything house-related, and we're starting to really get stir crazy to start some renovations with the house.  So hopefully keeping things clean and managing our time and $ better will allow us to start tackling some projects.  Stay tuned...

Until then, Happy New Year!