My goodness! What a warm welcome back! My site statistics were the highest they’ve ever been and for that, I’m thankful and humbled. I’m not sure what it says about you, though, dear reader(s, both of you). I mean, the fact that you’re enjoying hearing/reading about mine and my family’s misfortunes…well, that’s just plain weird. Nevertheless, I’m here to feed the beast.
It’s 9:45pm on December 31st which means that there are only a couple of hours left in this year. It has been a year of great sorrow for some dear friends and family. They lost loved ones to the monster called cancer. Tragically, one was only 17 years old and the other two were a family man and woman who both leave behind spouses and children. 2011 has not been the best of years and I’m optimistic about what 2012 holds.
My husband and I don’t typically go all out celebrating on New Year’s Eve. In fact, we don’t go out at all. ..even when we were dating. Now, of course, we have a preschooler which prevents us from going out so we do our celebrating at home. Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it celebrating. Several years ago, we were awaiting the countdown and started playing Uno. Yes. THAT Uno. The card game that you grew up with. We were so involved in this game that we totally missed the countdown and didn’t look up until it was well into the new year. We. Are. Old. If I used hashtags…which I don’t…I would say #toooldtostayawake. I wonder how long it took you to decipher that hashtag. …and now you see why I think they’re dumb, useless, and downright stupid. Dang it. I’m digressing again. #mustdobetter
One thing that I always do, though, is eat twelve grapes. It’s a tradition in Hispanic cultures to eat the twelve grapes. ..and let’s face it, they taste much better than those old mushy, nasty black eyed peas y’all southerners eat. (See what I did there? You didn’t? See, I wrote “y’all” while making fun of southerners because I’m a southerner by virtue of having grown up in Alabama & Georgia. It’s irony.)
Each grape represents one month of the year and we eat them when the clock strikes midnight. I live in the deep south, I’m married to a life-long Alabamian who banjo-talks when he gets together with his college roommate, my daughter refuses to speak Spanish (even though she understands me), and I rarely get to be in touch with Cuban traditions other than when the holidays roll around and I’m with my family. So, I’m determined to at least keep this one tradition alive.
As far as resolutions…well…no thanks. Ok. I’ll make a couple:
- Blog regularly. Possibly video blog. Don’t you want to see my pretty face. ….ok, just my face?
- Play Just Dance 3 and call it exercising.
- Attempt a restaurant meal in which everything goes well and report back to you, dear reader(s). Both of you. Wait. You’ll be so bored if I do that. If it accidentally happens that it is a good experience, I’ll embellish and try really hard to find something wrong. For your sake(s)…both of you.
Those all seem semi-doable. Don’t they? What are your resolutions?
