Time For a New Start

I decided while I was sitting here waiting for towels to dry so I can take a shower, I would go ahead and post for you lovely people. :)

It's been one hell of a year, and I'm ready to start new. First, let's recap so we know where we've been.

• I graduated from college. (Yippee!)
• I spoke to my dad for the first time since I was 3.
• I lost a grandfather.
• I painted my fireplace wall!

 

And where we're going?

• Remodel master bathroom. (fingers crossed!)
• Finish scrapbooks. (yeah, right)
• Visit some new state parks.
• Reconnect with my dad.
• Have one hell of a 30th birthday party!
• If the mom and brother move out, set up my art studio in the garage.

 No resolutions here, folks. We're not setting ourselves up for failure, just setting some goals. So, what are your new goals for 2011? I'm being nosy. :D

Oh, and the gratuitous picture of my cats from last year I promised. (Only a little late. lol)

Merry Christmas!

A very merry Christmas to all my blog buddies out there! Thanks to all of you for sticking by me the last year. :D

Is It Christmas Yet...I Might Be Losing It

Last night I decided I would be a good daughter and help my mom make cranberry orange nut muffins for the girls in her office. Of course, this means I get to eat at least one, which makes the laborious cutting of cranberries and so forth worth it. 

I thought I had bought everything we needed, until she asked about the orange juice. (Hangs head.) Luckily, I had been smart enough to buy a large bag of oranges for the stockings. I took to juicing those babies as best I could without a single juicing implement. That's right, folks. Not a mechanical juicer one lives in my house.  I thought I'd be smart and use the ultimate chopper. Almost useless. I used the whole microwave the orange and then roll it around until it's mushy. Combining those two is a bad idea. You end up squirting orange stuff all over the kitchen.

Do you know how many oranges it takes to get 1 1/2 cups of juice? Four, evidently. I juiced four oranges literally by hand, all the while little pieces of orange are squirting this way and that out of my hands. When I was done, there was almost nothing left but a few mauled orange rinds and the orange guts pulp sitting in a sad little pile. I had killed the oranges. And it felt good.

Crazy Family Part 2

I must apologize to all my blog buddies out there. I have neglected my blog and all of you, and I'm sorry! But, I promise I have a good excuse.

I have spent all of my spare time the last few weeks talking to my dad on Facebook, getting to know him, and trying to convince the rest of my family not to kill him. There's always been a lot of contention in my family because of him and the situation he left us in as small children. That anger is still there, but it's become more hurt than anything on my side. My brother and I sat down Saturday and had lunch with him, and are both of the agreement that we should move forward and not dwell on the past. Who hasn't screwed up majorly in their life? He wants to rectify the situation now, and that is what is important.

So, why are we willing to move on and our family isn't? I don't know. But, it looks like this meeting will be the talk of Christmas, and probably not in a good way. Remember the last post about how crazy my family can get? It gets 10 times worse when it's emotional. There's no such thing as an elephant in the room with my family, and since I have had the equivelent of a emotional bandaid ripped off of me, it's bound to get ugly. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to take up for him or justify anything that he did, because that's not something I find I can do. But, my emotions are running too high to talk with my family about it just yet. I may just spend a good amount of time out and about visiting friends I haven't seen in a couple of years. :) Don't you just love family?

Holiday Memories

I have always found that the memories we remember best are the ones where things didn't go quite as planned. My family has been the poster child (or poster family?) for things not going quite right. My fondest memories have always been of holidays and my childhood. With my mom being the middle of six kids and me the oldest of so many cousins I've lost count, things are bound to not always go smoothly.

Take the year of the roll. Everyone had finally sat down to the table at my grandparents' house to eat dinner. My grandfather, who was sitting at the head of the table asked for someone to pass him a roll, which were at the other end. He got more than he bargained for. Everyone, being the somewhat kind people I know they are, picked up their roll and threw it at him. No, this was not planned! My grandfather had about a dozen rolls launched at him from every direction. We laughed so hard, I think someone might have had gravy come out their nose.

I remember the first year my youngest aunt was newly married. Her husband kept taking candy canes off the Christmas tree, after my grandmother had warned him that they were for the kids and he was not to touch them. He learned his lesson the hard way. The last time he grabbed one it was in sight of my grandmother from the kitchen. He was hit square with a glass candleholder that was thrown with the precision of a ninja star. He never touched another candy cane on the tree.

Two years ago I hosted my first Thansksgiving. I invited all of mine and hubby's families, and a great portion of them showed up. It was cold, so we were all stuffed inside my house, but it was cozy. That is, until my mom decided to check on the turkey. Earlier that day she had been complaining that I wouldn't let anyone use my tea towels for stuff other than drying their hands. (Do you know how expensive these things are? And once you get grease on them, they don't come clean.) Well, she opened the oven door, checked the turkey, and closed it back up. We were sitting in the kitchen chatting when my aunt noticed the oven was on fire. We opened the door to find one of my tea towels that had been hanging on the oven door had flipped itself into the oven when my mom closed the door. To this day she is not allowed anywhere near my tea towels.

What crazy things has your family done?