Happy New Year!

It's 10pm New Year's Eve and I'm writing just to stay awake. I'm thinking there's no way I'm going to make it to midnight, but I'm at least going to try. And then when I fall asleep the kids can wake me up at 11:59, I'll scream and celebrate and hit my bed at 12:02. Gene had big plans to go to a hockey game but both kids were adamantly against it. I love hockey but then started thinking about climbing up and down all those stairs in my cast and sort of had to side with the kids. They have a Jim Thome bobblehead night coming up in a couple of weeks so I think Gene's ok with putting off going to a game. (Why Thome at a hockey game? No idea.)

The new plan was to watch a movie On Demand, but the movie we wanted wasn't yet available and we couldn't agree on anything else. We're watching an American Pickers marathon on the History Channel instead. We played Hedbanz for a while, the kids made a pinata and now they're playing marbles. I've read about "crackers" in Harry Potter books and have been curious. I was thrilled to find some at Target and bought them. The crackers were my hockey game for the night. The kids were terrified of the pop. Well, the pop turned out to be extremely lame and not scary, but the lame pop was nothing compared to the lame crackers. We had 9 and not one worked the way it was supposed to. Each and every one had to be manually ripped open. The kids liked the prizes and the paper crowns ok, but the bad jokes were the best part. Overall, a disappointment they didn't "explode" their contents, but still fun.

We ate Avanti's and got stuff to make cookie monsters. It's been a fun night, but the later it gets, the grumpier we all get and the more the kids fight.

The kids' vacation has been amazingly relaxing. I'm sure it's because I'm hobbled and not forcing everyone to go, go, go and do as much as possible. Kaylin spent two days in a row doing almost nothing but curling up on the couch or in her bed reading. It was awesome. Logan's been playing way too many video games, but he's also spent lots of time playing football with the neighbor boys and playing on the floor with cars and marbles. Nobody besides me has been getting out of bed before 9. Gene and Kaylin were in bed until almost noon yesterday. We're all just being lazy and while it's not my usual way, it's been fun. I think it's going to be really tough to transition back to work and school.

Do I have a New Year's Resolution? I want to lose some weight and have an adventure, but mostly I just want my feet to get better. If that happens, I'm going hiking. In the mountains.