Happy New Year!!

Hello 2011!!!  On to another year of more adventures and laughs.  Right now just a written update.  I left my camera cables at home in Long Beach so I can't upload any recent photos - looks for more pics regarding the Tran Christmas, cooking, and champagne opening!  Dan and I arrived home in Tuscaloosa Tuesday night after a day of traveling.  We were both pooped after sitting around airports all day (mostly Dan, he arrived 7 hours ahead of me but spent his time climbing at First Ave Rocks while waiting for my 11pm arrival).  It was good to be home but alas our home was not yet complete as Hannah was still boarded until the next morning - the earliest we could pick her up!  So we woke early the next day to pick up the little girl and we can safely say that she was happy to see us!  We spent the rest of the day lounging around the house and catching up on smothering her with love.  I don't think she slept much in the kennel as many of the other dogs were barky, she seemed pretty exhausted and she's been sleeping a lot more than usual ever since.  

Last night Dan and I had a low key New Year's Eve at home with the pooch.  We established a new NYE ritual of:

1) Dan getting drunk while we both watch the Chick-Fil-A Bowl that takes place in Atlanta, GA

2) Dan high-fiving our mistletoe after Florida State wins said Chick-Fil-A Bowl (P.S. high-fiving a mistletoe that has been up a month and therefore brittle as, well - brittle, means it goes spraying across the room in a confetti of green leaves)

3) Sweeping up mistletoe (see #2)

4) Successfully opening a bottle of the cheapest champagne available

5) Filling beer glasses of champagne and drinking it down

6) Singing the Auld Lang Syne song at the top of our lungs at the stroke of midnight with the many different versions offered up by Wikipedia

All in all a spectacular NYE spent at home safe and sound.  We had a nasty thunder storm all last night that made us thankful to be home.  Today we spent the day watching Alabama beat up on Michigan State (49-7 in the Capitol One Bowl in Orlando), I tried my hand at crock pot yogurt and we'll see how it turns out tomorrow morning!  Thanks to my little brother Anthony we've been playing Kirby's Epic Yarn on the Wii along with Dan's new favorite game of stress, Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam.  After a week of being gone from the Tuscaloosa home we're very content to settle down at the homestead with Hannah like the old couple we are - ha!  Dan's been cooking up some tasty dinners - chicken yellow curry, baked chicken with an oregano-chile pepper-brown sugar rub and brussel sprouts, along with tonights so - broccoli soba noodles ala Moosewood.  We are so very happy...

xo!