This past weekend (New Years weekend) the husband, Raven and myself went to visit my Dad, Step Mom and three Step Brothers in Ohio for the weekend. We left early Saturday morning and stayed until Sunday night. My Step Mom had a late Christmas / New Years get-together Sunday morning that lasted until after 6pm. Good food and good people made for a fun and entertaining day of bullshitting. It is amazing that my Dad lives a mere 3 hours away and I hardly get to see him. One of my New Years resolutions is to visit my Dad more often.

Dad and me.

Lose 30 pounds. I know that losing weight is a common resolution but I am going to try my damndest to do it this year. I need to lose 30 pounds to reach my goal weight and I will be happy. Hell, I would be happy with losing 20 pounds!

Visit my Dad more often. Like I said above, he lives only 3 hours away yet I only see him once or twice a year. I love him, he is a great Dad and I really miss him.

Stay positive. One of the main problems I have in my life is negativity. I let others get me down and it is causing nothing but grief in my life. I need to learn to not let others effect me as much as they do now.

Save more money. I really need to start adding more money in savings. For so long I was barely getting by. Now that I have some extra income left over after the bills, I need to save it instead of blowing it on things not really needed.

Blog more. We will see if that really happens. Most of the time I just do not have anything interesting to say.

Stop putting things off. I have a tendency to say “I’ll do it some other day”. But there might not be another day.

Complete a 365 Project. This will be my third attempt but I am going to give it another shot!

Do more fun actives with my daughter and husband.

My Christmas was a pleasant one. Nothing exciting happened and — thank God — nothing dreadful did either. The day before Christmas Eve, I spent it baking holiday goodies as presents for a few family members. Maple sugar cookies, peanut butter blossoms and cookies n’ cream fudge is what I filled the Christmas tins with this year.

On Christmas Eve, we headed down to my Mom and Nan’s house for a few hours. Since my Nan is not doing well, they opted out of having their annual Christmas Eve party but wanted to make sure we came down to get our gifts and spend some time with Nan. After a few hours, we headed down to Mike’s Dad and Grandpa’s house. We ate, bullshited and exchanged gifts and then headed back home. That night we spent watching various movies and tv shows and pretty much just relaxed. Raven went to bed at about midnight and I was not up long after that. I placed the gifts under the tree, filled the stockings and went to bed.

I woke up at a few minutes before 8am. I went to see if Raven was awake yet and (of course) she was. She was on her computer, liking a variety of pages on Facebook and waiting until we awoke. After unwrapping her gifts, Mike unwrapped his, I unwrapped mine and Jedi and London unwrapped theirs.  Actually, we had to help them unwrap theirs.

Raven got one of her favorite movies on DVD. The Taste of Tea.

Jedi playing with his Christmas catnip mouse that he got in his stocking.

London loving his new raccoon stuffed animal with a crinkly tail and squeaky appendages.

I got a Kitchen Ninja from my Mom and Nan. Five awesome drawings from my oh so talented daughter. Labyrinth t-shirt, Princess Bride DVD, new camera case that looks like a backpack and kitty cat earrings from my husband. And money from various family members. All in all it was a delightful holiday. How was everyone else’s holiday?

I cannot believe that Christmas is a mere three days away! Wow, this year has just flown by. I am happy to say that I finished the last of my Christmas shopping today. I had to pick up two gift cards and was able to get that accomplished while grocery shopping this afternoon. I have two presents waiting to arrive in the mail (they are suppose to arrive the 22^nd and 23^rd) and I still need to bake a few tins full of cookies but I will wait until Thursday so the cookies are as fresh as possible. Besides getting ready for Christmas, I have been working and trying to stay warm. It has been extremely cold the past few weeks and I dread venturing outside. Today was Raven’s last school day of 2010 and she could not be happier. She has back on January 3. Welp, I am pooped and think I am going to head to bed.