Happy New Year to all. I know this photo has nothing to do with 2010, but I just wanted to post a couple more holiday pictures, as last week's post was getting a tad picture-heavy. I love these Christmas trees that I got on clearance from the West End catalog, but we have a dickens of a time keeping them standing. Must find a better way to anchor them for next year. Hey, maybe that could be one of my New Year's resolutions. This last Christmas pic is of our 2009 Christmas card. It's the third (and probably, final) year that I have drawn a winter scene and then had Kinkos print Christmas cards from the drawing. I called the series, "Bird and Berries," as all three featured a red cardinal and some little red berries. So, here it is for you all - to wish you Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Kickin' Kwanzaa, and Happy New Decade.

Bob and I sat here like a couple of big loser lumps on New Year's Eve. That can be another resolution for next year: "Find something to do on NYE so we aren't sitting here like a couple of big loser lumps." On New Year's Day, though, we loaded up and drove down to meet the Smith's who were celebrating the holidays with their children inside Buckeye Cabin, a cozy abode that sleeps twelve and is located on a hill in the woods near Hocking Hills, Ohio. It was cold and snowy outside, but warm and merry inside. The holiday get-together also appeared to be some kind of Smith family cook-off. (Since we're in the woods, insert Dueling Banjos song from Deliverence here). We were fed lunch at 3:00 and dinner at 7:00 and there were tasty snacks in between all prepared by various Smiths. Here are a couple of pictures from the afternoon. We left the Buckeye Cabin about 8:30 and drove to Indy, where we planned to spend the night with Brent & Lindsey and then help them install a new dishwasher on Saturday. But, Lindsey, who had been under the weather, called to say she was feeling terrible and didn't want us to risk getting sick, so we opted to stay at the Hilton, instead. The next day, we did go over and put in the dishwasher. Brent took Lindsey to a doctor who diagnosed her flu as "possibly the H1N1 - no work until Wednesday, at the earliest - go to the hospital if you experience shortness of breath."

Here she is on the couch. Even her favorite sweet tea from McAlister's Deli didn't seem to perk her up. Also, Brent presented Bonnie the Barbarian with her Christmas bone in hopes of keeping her occupied during the dishwasher installation. Mostly, she carried the bone around, making little frantic whiny noises, while looking for somewhere to bury it. Lindsey's sick bed seemed like the ideal spot. She reminded me of the dog in the Traveler's Insurance commercial. You know "Trouble, trouble, trouble trouble..."Here she is with her precious bone.

Finally now, to those New Year's Resolutions. Let's see, we've got two now: 1. Find better way to keep trees up and 2. Find something to do so we're not Loser-Lumps on New Year's Eve. That's a good start. If you check Lindsey's blog, you'll see that she has posted several lists of goals and accomplishments, starting in 2002 and building. Many of them are lofty and ambitious and some of them she has already checked off her lists. (Although, I don't believe I saw "Survive H1N1 in 2010 on any of those lists) She's very brave and she inspires me to be brave and try new things too. So here goes my big resolution. 3. Get something published this year.