Once again, my blog posts tapered off sharply in December after a full month of posting in November. And the dropoff was even worse in 2010 than in 2009. Some days just felt really busy, and there were some days when I didn't have any good topics to talk about. But I'm determined to post semi-regularly, at least a couple of times a week. I need to work on my list of blog topics so I have those to draw on when my mind is blank.
As you well know, yesterday was New Year's Eve. For a long time, it's seemed like an odd holiday to celebrate. We all stay up late (or to the normal bedtime for some) so that we can say "Yay, it's the beginning of a new year!" There's not really much that's different between 11:59 pm on December 31 and 12:00 am on January 1 from year to year, but we ascribe a lot of significance to it as we close the books on one year and look ahead to a new one.
We used to go out for New Year's Eve. I think we mostly went out because we felt like we should. In fact, the year it turned 2000, we went to Disneyland for New Year's Eve. We were there all day. It was cold and rainy for much of the day which, while miserable, also kept the crowds down for the most part. But then 7pm arrived, and the crowds started flocking in. Main Street got more and more crowded, to the point that it was ridiculous to try to even think of going on more rides as we waited - or even moving from one side of the park to the other. We ended up staking out spots on Main Street with our friends and then just hanging out until it got close enough to midnight for Disneyland to start entertaining us in preparation for the countdown. Although we *did* do a practice countdown and faux celebration for the East Coast, who would be seeing Disneyland celebrating at midnight their time, 9:00 pm ours. When we were done at the real midnight, we stayed around long enough to get in a couple more rides, then drove about 2 miles to a nearby hotel and stayed overnight instead of trying to drive back home at 2am with a bunch of drunk people on the road.
Once I got pregnant with Rachel, it gave us a great reason to stay home. The year she was born, we ordered a meal to go from a restaurant (Chili's, I think) and rented a couple of movies. Got her settled in bed, then we ate while hanging out and watching the movies we'd picked. We were pretty much sold on that after we'd done it the first time, and it's become our favorite way to spend New Year's Eve. It's just nice to have an extended quieter time without the kids to enjoy a great meal together (that I don't have to cook) and catch up on movies we've missed.
The last 3 or 4 years, it's been Olive Garden for the meal. I don't care if people say it's not authentic Italian food (although they send their top chefs to Tuscany to get cooking experience from the area, so I think those people are at least partly wrong). We really enjoy their food, and it's high in calories, so it's not something that we indulge in regularly. But New Year's Eve is not about counting calories, which makes it a great time for an indulgent meal! And I must say, their Parmesan Crusted Bistecca (steak) was really delicious, as was the asparagus that came with it and the fettucine alfredo that I substituted for the garlic mashed potatoes.
Last night's movie picks were Date Night and Iron Man 2. Date Night is hilarious, and there was a sequence involving a cab that made me laugh harder than I have in some time! Iron Man 2 was darker than the first one, but it had some great character development and relationships, and a genuinely hissworthy villain. All in all, it was a really nice night hanging out with James and having grown-up time.
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