1. Um, yeah: Happy New Year! (State the obvious first – and now I can be just like every other blog you’ll read today). 2008 is over and I’m excited to see what ’09 has in store for me.

2. Today is the first day of my 101 List. I’ve done nothing so far. I started reading a new book, and eventually that will be 1 of the 250 I said I would read in the next 1001 days. Yes, 250 books. It’s not unreasonable. But, the inevitable part is that a fair amount of those books will be fluff.

3. New music this week: “On the Way Down” and “True” by Ryan Cabrera, “Sounds So Good” by Ashton Shepherd, “Silver Lining” by Rilo Kiley, “You Are the Best Thing” Ray LaMontagne, “Use Someone” and “Closer” by Kings of Leon, “Without You” by Hinder, and “I Melt With You” as covered by Jason Mraz. (Guess who’s burning through Christmas iTunes gift cards?).

4. My sister got engaged yesterday! She came over today to flash her ring at me and to ask me to be in the wedding. I may be the oldest bridesmaid EVER.

5. For those of you in blended family situations, we’re looking for contributors for a new channel on Blissfully Domestic – let me know if you’re interested.

6. I’m eating a candy cane. I love candy canes. I am thinking about how good it would taste in a huge mug of hot cocoa. Except… I just finished my candy cane. Gonna have to open another one, or hold that peppermint cocoa thought for another day.

7. We picked up Playground for the Wii today. The Princess is totally Queen of the Wii.

8. I miss guitar lessons. I’ve barely picked up my guitar. I need practice and I am not sure why I haven’t.

9. I’m really ready for Winter Break to be over. I miss the routine of getting things done. I miss the quiet. I know The Princess is loving her endless Wii hours, but I know she’s missing her friends too. Pumpkin needs some time to be around crazy amounts of kids doing circle time things. We’ve actually had a fun time, and we’ve done some fun stuff – but I’m ready to get things done and have some downtime.

10. Wow. Yeah, I’ve got nothing else. Happy new year – hope 2009 brings you joy and happiness, and other stuff.

1. Pumpkin has been hit hard this week with the crud – a fever, a nasty cough and a very drippy runny nose which has resulted in: very little sleep, a listless kiddo, and a funky rash on her face from wiping her nose with her arm (I know, I know. It’s gross). Last night, I gave her her prescription cough med with codeine – thinking, “Cool, she’ll feel better so she can sleep, and then I’ll be able to sleep.” Nope. She was up around 1:30 with a temp around 102, the heat just radiating from her little body – even her wet diaper that I peeled off her was hot, like she was peeing boiled water (again, I know: It’s gross).

2. Sick kiddo meant NO daycare today, which meant that I took her with me to my guitar lesson. It actually went better than I thought it might, and thought it was a little LESS laid back, it was still good to get out and do it – especially because the upcoming holidays means I won’t have a lesson until the second Thursday in January. That’s a long time.

3. I won a $20 gift card to Amazon.com today – which was awesome. I totally plan on using it to buy something FOR MYSELF, and I know that it’s not the season to be a greedy self-gift-giver… I’m gonna anyway.

4. We’re supposed to get hit hard with snow sometime before noon tomorrow. Like, up to a foot of snow, they’re predicting. No fun. No fun at all… If there is a snow day before the kids have two weeks off from school… well… guess that’s winter in Michigan, isn’t it?

5. I really hate wrapping presents. I have a ton of stuff I still need to wrap and I’m putting off. This is a marathon, not a sprint, right? I better get started.

6. As I type, Pumpkin must be feeling better. She is making a tower with a wrapped Christmas present (Hubby musta wrapped that one – it’s for me – I know what it is), a box of paper clips, my digital camera, a purse pack of Kleenex and my bra. I’m not sure if she’s going to be a sculpture artist when she grows up or an engineer.

7. Snow day or not, I have to spend tomorrow baking a whole big ton of cookies. Saturday is our annual cookie decorating party. Since a few of her friends couldn’t come, The Princess asked if she could invite some of her friends from school. I said yeah. She then said she was inviting 11 more girls and two boys, and I told her, “Back that truck up, Missy. No.” So, guess on Saturday we’ll see if what I said sunk in or if I’ll be hosting the entire first grade.

8. You know what sounds really good right now? Mexican food. Spicy, spicy Mexican food. That I don’t have to cook.

9. New music this week: “You Found Me” The Fray; “Be Like That” Three Doors Down (after which I realized that DUH, I am pretty sure we have this cd, and I could have just ripped the cd to iTunes – I am a GENIUS), and uhhh Britney’s “If You Seek Amy” which really has nothing to do with anyone named Amy – say it kinda fast, and it sounds like you’re spelling a little somethin’ somethin’.

10. What gift are y’all looking forward to giving most of all next week? Anything special you can’t wait for someone to open?

1. As I type this, Chris at Rude Cactus is up to 208 comments. So, over $100 to charity so far. If you haven’t yet dropped him a comment, remember, he’s donating $.50 per comment to charity (read his post for details). And, yes, you should still read him tomorrow and beyond that, because he’s funny.

2. My guitar lesson went so well today. I walked out and was unbelievably giddy – because I just felt like some things I had been struggling with (mainly bar chords) were finally coming together. I played one well – thought it was a fluke, and then went through the rest and almost consistently, they were coming together. I have been having THE WORST time with them- basically because it takes finger strength to do them, and the only way you can get that kind of strength is by (hey!) doing them. So, yeah – you have to play it like crap a whole lot of times until you’re strong enough to play it less like crap. And I hit that today and I’m happy.

3. Oh my god I have eaten so many cookies. Does anyone want to send me Chex Mix or Cheetos?

4. And since I’m asking, does anyone want to come over and make dinner for my family tonight because I looked in the fridge and there’s not much there. Looks like we’re having yogurt, gingerbread cookies and Cheerios. Yum.

5. I have been sleeping horribly this week, and so that’s been difficult. I’m fine once I fall asleep – it’s the actually FALLING ASLEEP part that I’m having trouble with. Any ideas?

6. I have to go to a baby shower this weekend for my cousin’s wife. I am in charge of getting the gift. I haven’t looked at her registry yet. I haven’t been to Babies R Us yet. I am doing a pretty crappy job with this gifting thing for her. This is their first, so I’m kind of curious as to what they registered for. I’m sure I did moronic registering when I was pregnant for The Princess. Typical clueless first time parent who thinks you really need a wipe warmer or a bottle warmer that plugs into your cigarette lighter (used once, I think). I am told their registry is 19 pages long, so I’m hoping that means there is still some stuff left to choose from when I finally get to the store.

7. New music this week – still pretty slow, musically. A friend of mine is a country music fan and had me listen to “Stay” by Sugarland and then the freakin’ song got stuck in my head so I bought it (thanks). I have a huge list of new music – but I also get to feeling a little guilty buying things for myself at this time of year.

8. My mom sent out her family Christmas letter and a card with a collage of pictures of everyone in our family. There are six grandchildren, five kids (us and our stepbrothers), three significant others, my mom and her husband… AND WE ALL LOOK LIKE CRAP IN THE INDIVIDUAL PICTURES. What are the odds that NOT ONE PERSON looks good? Well, we hit the photographic jackpot. Everyone looks like hell. Merry Christmas. (Though I do have to say the part of her family Christmas letter that talks about my family is the best part of the letter because I wrote it).

9. Do you love or hate getting people’s family Christmas letters? My mom is known for sending them – but I hated getting other people’s letters when we were kids. Hearing all these fantastic things their kids were doing, all these amazing places they were travelling. It always felt like “hey, read the 101 ways our family is better than yours”. Or, maybe I just have a complex.

10. I have to break my dry spell on music buying. Tell me what you’re listening to these days?

1. With the Thanksgiving holiday last Thursday, I have now had two weeks off between guitar lessons. I missed it! It was good to be back today and my fingers are killing me because in the second half of these two weeks, I have barely picked up my guitar. Today, I started learning Three Doors Down’s “Be Like That”. See that goofy looking guitarist in the beginning of the video (and MY GOD – does he know what he looks like chewing his gum like that?!) – that’s what I’m learning.

2. Three weeks til Christmas? Oh my god. Can you believe it? It’s just around the corner. Are y’all done with your shopping? Have you started?

3. I’m starting to wonder where all my free time went. It has been pure insanity lately. Sometimes I’m not even sure what I’ve been doing but I feel like I’ve been running around like crazy. Must be all those stupid snow delays.

4. I have a conference call tonight with folks in Central time zone who were considerate enough to bump the call today by 30 minutes right smack in the middle of the time I would need to be fixing my family dinner. I’m sure no one considered that it’s an hour later in Michigan than where they are. I guess the bright side is that I don’t have to make dinner. Of course, the downside is that I’m probably going to end up eating toast for dinner. That’s not fun.

5. I have not purchased any new music this week. I have not been hit on the head with a blunt object. I don’t think I have a fever or other illness that might cause me mental confusion. I just haven’t. Boy. That’s odd. Better fix that situation quickly!

6. Getting ready for our third annual cookie decorating party that is set to take place in two weeks. I need a good recipe for gingerbread cookies. Please enlighten me if you have one that rocks. I love gingerbread, and I want to do this for real this year – not from a mix. Though, I have to make a couple hundred cookies, so some mix cookies might be necessary.

7. In the next week, I will hit day 100 of the 365 Picture Project. ONE HUNDRED. Can you believe it? I sure can’t. I haven’t missed a day yet, even though some of my pictures have been boring or goofy. I’m definitely not a hardcore photographer, but it’s fun and I keep looking back on the days prior and it’s been an awesome way to reflect.

8. Top Chef – I love that show. I get sucked in every week and every week I am reminded how absolutely very little I know about cooking. Last night’s episode was pretty neat because they had to kind of explain to us stupid people at home how to make something. And it was nice to see most of the chefs falter at that. I’m not sure why I found amusement in their failure, but I did. Don’t judge me.

9. If you were going out of town for a weekend because you just had cabin fever SO BAD you couldn’t stand to sit at home one more weekend. Let’s say you live in Michigan. Let’s say you’re going to drive wherever you end up going – WHERE would you go and WHAT would you do?

10. I just realized that I’m about four months overdue in getting Pumpkin’s 3 year pictures taken, and the thought of going ANYWHERE to get them done right now makes me claustrophobic and squidgy because you know those photostudios are going to be filled with matchy-matchy families in their red matchy Christmas clothes. YUCK. Maybe I’ll put it off another month.