Happy New Year!

Happy 2008! I am so glad it's a new year, but I am,already, missing all those holiday parties and the busyness of the holiday season. We were really blessed with being invited to quite a few parties. The Eco friendly Christmas party with gift exchange was loads of fun. I received shade grown organic coffee and Endangered species chocolate. When we discovered our goodies the other half exclaimed," endangered species in Chocolate, that is just sick!" Haha, but I did look at the chocolate differently after that. Not to differently, it made it into my belly in less than 48 hours! What can I say, Chocolate is chocolate!
Our friend Michele purchased a soap stone figurine of a mother and child to give at the party. Problem is, it didn't really resemble a mother and child and the men pointed out it looked more falic in nature. Needless to say, the statue was given at a White Elephant party the following week. Michele, happened to be the person to pick it. She opened it and there was her stature with a provalactic on top! Luckily she has a great sense of humor and it is on her mantel at home! We have all decided that his notorious statue has to the "roaming gnome" of our group. So The Other Half and I are taking it to England, in February, and we will get pictures of it watching the changing of the guard. Several other friends are traveling this year and guess who will be traveling along? ;) We are a sick group, I know.
We attended a great family party on New Years Eve. It was hosted by our friends Megan and Glenn. They opened their homes and their kitchen to, what seemed like, hundreds of us. ( I think it seemed like more people were there due to the high kid to parent ratio and boys being boys. :) ) Glenn is from South Africa. He prepared a traditional dish that I can't pronounce, let alone write, but it tasted very good. We all agree it tasted like meatloaf with curry. I don't know whether or not Glenn found it to be a complimentary comment, but the dish was quit good! Later at the party our Canadian friend, Mimi, started enlisting volunteers for a New Years day Polar bear swim. The men totally wussed out and the swim was all set to be a "girl friend thing" at 11am the next day. About 11:30pm our kiddo's started become VERY cranky so we hopped out of there and headed home to watch Dick Clarks Rockin' Eve. It was probably for the best that we went home when we did. That way I could get a little more sleep before my swim the next day.
C enjoyed watching the ball drop, G feel asleep on the couch at 5 til midnight. It was heart warming to see Dick Clark doing his thing again. I commend ABC for supporting him. I also commend Ryan Seacrest on his demeanor. He was so respectful of Dick Clark. He seemed to really see him self as second fiddle and I thought that was really great. I don't watch American Idol, so I don't know much about Ryan Seacreast other than he has billions of jobs, but seeing him co host, he seemed like a humble guy. That is so rare in his business and with his degree of fame. Kudos.
Onto my polar bear story! I slept until about 10, receive the call for our meeting spot at about 10:45 and I was out the door. Man, I was so tired that I forgot to pack a towel! We met at my friend Annie's, who lives near, a major creek in our town. We had coffee and tried to psych ourselves up. Kevin and Brian, two of the husbands, came to document the whole thing and raze us about being crazy. It was some where around 10 ,or so, degrees that day, so we were in agreement with us being crazy. We took some pictures and headed out. At this point I should let you know what a dork I am, if you hadn't guessed already. I was wearing shoes and sock, but changed into flip flops before leaving Annie's house. I did this for two reasons, I didn't want to try to put wet feet into socks (the whole forgotten towel thing) and I thought we were closer to the creek than we were. Luckily my friend Megan followed my lead and we commiserated for the 5 or so minute hike to the creek. It was fun. Angela wore a shower cap, I wore a wizards hat, Mimi a funny looking hat, Sara and Michelle wore Sherpa hats, and Annie and Megan sensible,warm, hiking hats. The hubs followed taking pictures all the way. We got to the creek and it took a couple of minutes to find a good spot. Once found, we all looked around and said who is going first? I don't know who disrobed first but some one did and the rest of us followed QUICKLY! Before we jumped in we all posed for a bathing suit clad photo, and then someone again said who is going first? Kevin blew the Conch shell and someone jumped in and the rest followed. Sarah, Angela, Annie, Mimi, and Michele made it to the middle of the creek, neck high! Sarah caught Michele's flip flops as they floated down stream. Michele was so cold she didn't realize they had been lost! Megan and I weren't as daring. Our frozen toes were hurting so bad that I made it shin high and Megan made it waist high before we jumped out and started asking what the first signs of frostbite were! Mimi, our leader, was the last one out. They got some great pictures of her trouncing about in the winter water. She was cold but enjoying every second of it. I will admit it I was first out, I wore my gloves on my feet all the way home, but I felt triumphant, I think we all did. It was fun, crazy, zany, so many of those adjectives. If that 2 hours of our New Years day is any indication as to the rest of 2008, then I think we are in for a great year!

I hope all of you had just as great a new years eve and new years day. Happy 2008 and may it be a great one!

If you would like to see the card my friend Sara put together,just click on the title of today's blog entry. The picture she used is our "before" shot. Enjoy!