Welcome wonderful 2013!!!

okay - i know that 2013 has already been here for a week - but what can i say - i am always a day late, a dollar short and all of that jazz. so far 2013 has been wonderful! check out our first staying snow from this morning:



beautiful isn't it? we have had the occasional flurry over the holiday season but no staying snow. this will only last for today as tomorrow and wednesday will be above zero and sunny. then more snow on thursday but that will be gone by friday/saturday. i love that we get a few days of snow, then it melts and we see green for a few days, then back to white. i will let you all know when we get "true and proper staying snow" that stays for at least a week.

anyway - a recap of our crazy holiday season. it was awesome. filled with food, fun, friends and family - we love our Framboise family so much. we visited with our family and friends, were fed and given so much food it was almost sinful. our friends' son turned 19 and we had a blast of a party on the 22nd that started at the Fourchu hall and ended at our friends' house....at 4:30am!!! i am not ashamed to admit that i have only been drunk out of my mind twice in my life....and once was on the 22nd - bahahahah! we all had such a good time! Christmas day and dinner was spent with our Fourchu family - much good food was enjoyed and then we all went to our other friends' basement to play pool and dance. thankfully that party ended at about 1:30am and i kept to only a few glasses of wine. the next several days were spent visiting family and friends and just all around good times. we rung in New Year's Eve at the Framboise hall - i think we had 40 people but all of them good people who we love to spend time with - we had a blast!!! after all of that partying and visiting - we needed a couple of days off, followed by more visiting. and now the holiday season is officially over and we are looking very much forward to 2013.

here's a beautiful sky pic taken a few days ago for my sweetest sister Helga.



and another:

 

 hey kymber - what's in the jar? teehee.

 

that's our new "gratitude" jar. i used to keep gratitude journals for years - basically i would write in my journal before bed about something that i was grateful for that day. doing that everyday kept me grounded and made me have to reflect that even if it had been a horrible day - there would have to be at least one thing during the day that i was grateful for. i stopped writing in my gratitude journal shortly before we moved here and haven't picked it back up. so for 2013, jambaloney and i decided we would make a gratitude jar. we write something on a scrap of paper at least once a day, sometimes more, and then drop it in the jar. next holiday season we will open the jar and read through all of the things that we were grateful for this year. we have been doing this everyday now and it really feels like a good ritual. it makes me happy!
 
there's been lots of good food over the holiday season when we weren't out at someone's house being force-fed a 5th and 6th plate of food! here's a romaine, tomatoe and cucumber salad with a fresh-made balsamic vinaigrette - yummy!

nothing like a delicious plate of spagetti and meatballs!

a snack to share with your baby as you cuddle on the couch watching movies.

this salad is really good for you if you have spent a few days eating too much! romaine and pomegranate seeds with a light fresh-made dressing of tangerine, olive oil, ginger and garlic.

here's our New Year's Day supper, turmeric-cream chicken with a nice light salad and sprouts.

and another light snack for cuddling with your baby - ham,pickle and sprouts on a lettuce leaf.

one last pic of a beautiful sunset a few nights ago. of course for my sweetest sister.

i am off to make up some more cabbage rolls - i love those things! jambaloney is in the basement building book shelves. once the cabbage rolls are in the oven, we are calling it a day and spending the rest of the day reading and hottubbing!

i hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! i will make the rounds to all of your blogs later this afternoon! no worries - i always back-read any posts that i missed!

and that's me out of here!