Holiday cheer

Well, Thanksgiving came and went.
Now we can check Christmas off that list of holidays crammed in at the end of the year. 

Christmas Cheer

Every Christmas Eve, the family I have living near me gets together for a little party.  Always there, are my two sisters (Steph, in red; Renee, the tall silver one), Steph's fiance (they got engaged just Christmas Eve morning!!), Auntie Donna (the 'flapper', there), Donna's hubby, and my hubby.  This year our brother was going to join us, since he is nearby and we all recently reconnected (sadly, it took the death of our father, this Spring, but doesn't that seem to happen a lot with adult siblings?).  Unfortunately, he has been going through some of his own things, and wasn't up for a party.  I get it, I do, but it was sad that he didn't make it.
Each year, we rotate the venue between me, Steph, and Donna (since Renee lives in a tiny cottage on Donna's property, the three of us are the only ones with 'homes').  This year was to be my turn again, but Steph and her guy just bought a house this Spring and wanted to host.  Fine by me...way less work!
It was great fun...lots of laughing and eating.  Steph made a delicious dinner of beef roast, stuffing, roasted root veggies, green beans, sauteed cabbage, and some meatless 'meatballs' for the veg-heads.  I brought rolls, and Renee had a cheese plate for before dinner...to go with the deviled eggs and other pre-meal snacks.  Lots of cookies followed dinner, too.
We had a Yankee swap...handmade gifts only, this year! 

Now we're on to New Year's Eve.  Another new year is right around the corner.  Another year gone by without a real vacation, but lots of work and working out.
We're treating ourselves to a trip to Bermuda for New Year's Eve.  It was to be mild and 70's...getting away from this cold 40 degree rain we keep getting here on the East Coast.  Instead, the weather is getting worse there...colder and rainier.  That's fine...we just need to get away from phones, computers, and work.
Two more days of work, a night in Boston, and an early flight out Sunday morning and we'll be on our way to relaxationland.

Christmas Day, we set out for our usual tradition of a movie and Chinese food (Hubby being raised Jewish, and me being raised to drive 2 hours to spend an awkward day of sitting in the corner while the men in my dad's family 'passionately discussed' nothing in particular).  The theater was packed.  Each year it gets more so.  But the movie was AWESOME!
We saw Django Unchained.

My favorite part of the movie!
(source: ranker.com)

I like most of Quentin Tarantino's movies.  But I absolutely fell in love with Christoph Waltz's character in this movie.

And, after the movie at the, in my opinion, over-crowded theater, we had to have dinner at our second choice (the Thai place we like) because the Chinese restaurant we like was too crowded.  I never thought I'd hear these words, but Hubby is thinking we need a new Christmas tradition, since ours is no longer 'ours'.  I am amazed at the crowds compared to the dozen or so others we saw the first year he dragged me out to a Christmas Day movie!  I can only assume families are getting increasingly tired of spending time together on Christmas?

No matter...January is coming.  More importantly, December 30 is coming, and I get to go away for a few days.  No getting up at 3 a.m. for 5 days!  I'm hoping it will recharge me, not only at my every day paycheck-providing job, but also in the studio.  I'm giving myself this year to make my final decision on my Etsy site: to continue or shut down.  We shall see how the new year treats me.

OH, and in other news...
For anyone following my other blog (barracudadiaries.blogspot.com) where I am attempting to restore an old 1967 Plymouth Barracuda, I had a kind of cool thing happen.  In the grand scheme of things, it's really nothing, but I got pretty excited about it.  I have a twitter account for that blog and facebook page, like I do for this blog.  Well, the twitter is brand new.  As of a few days, I had just a few tweets and no followers.  I'm still trying to get some traffic.  But the fun thing was my first follower.  My only follower as of now.  Gas Monkey Garage!

(source: discovery channel (UK))

I know...it's not like they know me personally or even really care about who I am or what I'm about.  But, I've been watching their show, Fast 'n Loud, since I found it on the Discovery Channel.  They crack me up and they fix cars!  So, I have my classic car and I watch this show and now they are my one follower on twitter.  It just makes me happy, that's all.

Well, on that note, I'd like to wish everyone a super fabulous new year!