Happy New Year!

Hi, remember me?  I used to have this blog thang that I liked to do every day.  But I've been taking the idea of "being on vacation" very seriously this Christmas season, and my laptop and I hardly know one another anymore.  I have so much to catch up on with all of my blogging friends--because I have not only not been blogging myself, but I've hardly spent any time reading all of my favorite blogs, either.  It's just been too insanely (and wonderfully) busy and fun and full of family time lately, so I thought it best to put this old blog of mine on the back burner (mostly, anyway--with just a few check-ins so you know I'm still alive) for a bit.

We spent four days after Christmas in Upstate NY (in the town where my husband and I grew up, fell in love, and got married), visiting with various and sundry members of both of our families.  Then we drove to CT for a few days, because our baby, who is a junior out at Notre Dame, had plans to meet up at the home of one of his Army ROTC buddies for a big Notre Dame New Year's extravaganza, and this buddy happens to live less than an hour from one of my husband's younger brothers.  Although this brother is away on a trip (he is an airline pilot, like my guy), we've gotten in a nice visit with our sister-in-law and one of our nieces, and our boy got dropped off yesterday for the party with his college friends.  It's been a win-win situation all around.

Last night, my husband, my sister-in-law, and I rang in 2014 in grand style: by splitting a bottle of champagne and a plate full of homemade chocolate chip cookies*.  We also watched a Netflix movie that she'd been sent in the mail.  None of us knew much about "The Big Wedding," but it features Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton, and Katherine Heigl, among other well-known stars, and we thought we'd give it a shot.  After all, one of our sons just got married in early December, another will be getting in less than two months, and one of our S-I-L's daughters just got engaged--so we are all currently afflicted with a severe case of wedding fever. 

I'm not really sure if "The Big Wedding" is rated PG-13 or R (something we should have checked on before we put it in the DVD player), but either way, it is exceedingly inappropriate and filled with pretty much irredeemable characters.  None of us liked it and I don't know why we even watched it to the end--I think we were waiting to see if there might be even one character who decided to clean up his act.  But no; even the male character who started out being a bit inspirational, because he'd made a vow of chastity at 15 and was still a virgin at 30 (waiting for "the one"), winds up succumbing to temptation and having meaningless, lust-driven sex with a woman he has just met.  Surprise, surprise.  And wait, here's another shocker: although there are Catholic characters in this movie and a confession scene with Robin Williams as the priest (playing the role just about the way you'd expect him to), all the beliefs and practices of the Faith are denigrated and skewered in true Hollywood fashion.

SO--the movie was a mistake.  But our little party was a ton of fun.  My S-I-L took a selfie of the three of us party animals shortly before the ball dropped, and at midnight she shot it out to all the family in a text that read, "We be 'cray'!"  (I love this sister-in-law; when she's involved, life is always a party.)

We were cray--you should have seen us!  I mean, look at the proof littering her kitchen counter the following morning.  We partied--oh yes we did!  :)

I hope your New Year's Eve celebration was as wild and cray as ours, and as cozy and fun.  And I wish you health and happiness and many blessings in 2014.

*Before I go, I have to share this recipe for happiness I learned from my S-I-L.  She makes chocolate chip cookie dough ahead of time, and then she rolls it into logs and puts it in the freezer.  That way, she can take it out and cut it, just the way you do with that Pillsbury ready-to-bake cookie dough, using as little or as much of it as she needs.  It's pure genius!  And you're welcome!