DawnT
Sous Chef
Nephew and girlfriend over for cards and junkfood. Watch the ball drop and toast with gingerale!! Cooking a turkey and having the kids and grandkids over for dinner on New Years day. Nothing fancy, just easy cheesy!!
I love this idea Barbara!!! I am very goal-oriented so choosing a destination and then walking the necessary miles to get there would work for me. (I think I'll pick Cancun, though.) Thanks for sharing this - it sounds like it will be fun. Have a wonderful New Year!As far as resolutions, I don't really formally make them, but I do plan to continue to lose weight and get back to riding my exercise bike. I mapped out a route to my daughter's house (2,598.96 miles) and I am riding my exercise bike "to" her house.
With any luck my son will have the night off and I will get to babysit (2 of my granddaughters and my grandson - in addition to my step-mom) while he and my DIL go out to party. We'll cook something together for supper, watch some TV, make some cookies, if it's a clear sky we'll break out the telescope and do some star gazing - or get on the radio and see if we can catch any satellite signals (the ISS would be a major coupe), then eat the cookies we made and have hot cider, spiced tea or cocoa to warm up - and watch the ball drop in NYC.
As for my resolutions - just one, the only one I know I can keep: I resolve not to make any resolutions!
Lou and I are going to Birdland Jazz club in NYC to listen to Hillary Kole and then off to Delta Grill for the best cajun/creole cuisine NYC has to offer.
I don't believe in resolutions. (As a kid, I didn't believe in giving up anything for lent, either). Sure, it's great to have a clean slate; but too often, resolutions tend to be negative or about denial. Life shouldn't be about denial. Life should be celebrated with joie de vivre apparent in all you do. Find balance and harmony and the rest will fall into place, including the things you'd like to eliminate or change. You should examine your life everyday, not once a year. Set small goals, things that you know you can achieve, and it will always lead to accomplishing bigger goals you barely considered possible.
Hear the music, and dance like no one is watching you. If you can do that, resolutions are not going to be necessary.
Yes, IL has gone from being an open smoking state to having laws so restrictive that you quite literally cannot walk down Main Street smoking because you might get a wisp of smoke in the door of a business. You have to understand ... I'VE NEVER SMOKED IN MY LIFE. But I think this is extreme. Now smokers are supposedly not even allowed to step outside of the restaurant/bar for their fix. They have to move to Iowa or buy a farm (OK, I'm exaggerating, but given where we live, not by much).
Thanks for this, Claire. We forget we can make resolutions that benefit others just as easily as ones that benefit ourselves. Remember a few years back the "Practice Random Acts Of Caring and Kindness" concept? I have always had a blast with this because it allows you to be really creative in thinking up lovely little acts that surprise and delight the recipient. Sometimes, it's the only nice thing that has happened to that person in a long time. Anyway, it's lots of fun and my kids have always gotten a kick out of thinking up things.Vera and others; once upon a time, many years ago in a land far away I wrote a newspaper column about this.
How about we CAN make positive resolutions and lental offerings.
A friend of mine said she was going to make a point of saying something nice to someone every day during lent. She was surprised at how negative she was when she really thought about it. She was determined to find a compliment.
SO resolutions do not have to be about denial. It can be buying 3 extra cans of soup and dropping them at the food bank every month. It can be, I WILL remember being a teenager myself when my kids are driving me crazy. It can be, well, I'm driving by that sr citizens center almost every day, I'll stop once a week and read a chapter of a book for 15 minutes.
Yes, if life was perfect, the new years resolution to lose 20 lbs, quit smoking, etc, would work. But maybe we need to think more positively, and in smaller increments. Think of something small, something that will take only a minute or five, and tag it on to something else you're doing. Voila! Sucess! The concept of trying to find something to compliment others on actually makes YOU feel happier, it really does.