New Year's weekend highlights

We had a terrific New Year's weekend! Although we hadn't planned a lot of activities in advance, our 3-day weekend was full of fun stuff!

For New Year's Eve we went to a potluck dinner at Chris & Jason's house. Many of our friends were there, including Steven & Thad, the Bobs, Rusty, Joe, and Art. I had simmered a crockpot full of meatballs all day long and took them to the party. We had a ham, potato salad, spinach balls, chicken balls, chips and dips, hot wings, my saucy meatballs, and everything was delicious. I had a mimosa and a glass of Prosecco at the party. Then around 10:00 the group went to a local watering hole where we hung out until the final countdown to the new year. We raised our clear plastic champagne glasses and at midnight we toasted and wished each other a happy new year. Earlier in the day I got a text message from my old friend David, indicating he was on his way into town so we arranged to meet up at the watering hole. The last time we'd seen each other was at my grandparents' funeral in Jan 1990, 20 years ago! I introduced him to Spouse and we had fun chatting and reminiscing.

On New Year's day most of the guys from the potluck reconvened for brunch at The Buttery, a beautiful restaurant in an old Victorian house. The food and mimosas were good, the homemade baked goods were great, but the company was the best. We ate, drank, and laughed for 2 1/2 hours. A great start to the new year in my opinion. Spouse & I stopped at a few stores to do some comparison shopping, then walked over to Jared & Merle's house. They'd invited us to come over for a little new year's nosh (we didn't tell them we'd just finished brunch an hour earlier) and we had a great time. Jared made a homemade cheese cake and homemade eggnog with spiced rum, both of which were out of this world. We visited with them in their parlor and I sat in the chair closest to the fireplace which added that extra umph to a warm and cozy afternoon. Jared sent us home with 2 huge slices of cheese cake, too!

Once home, Spouse took a nap and I watched some TV until it was time for our regular Fri Night Dinner with 'the usual suspects'. 12 of us ate at Miltonian Pizzeria and Wing House, and Spouse & I shared our favorite: Bodacious buffalo chicken pizza. (Its hard to believe we could possibly eat again after all we'd eaten earlier that day.) Afterward, several of the guys came back to our house for a little while before we all headed out to the MANDance, a monthly dance party at a local watering hole. Since Spouse doesn't really like going to bars, it was a real surprise to me that he agreed to go out 2 nights in a row! I only had 1 cocktail because the MANDance quickly got very crowded and hot. Simply getting to the bar was an ordeal, so we just danced and had a great time. We saw lots of friends there, including our old friend Kevin who moved to FL several years ago, then moved to MD last year, then moved back home to DC a few months ago. What a nice surprise to catch up with him again!

Sat Spouse & I had breakfast out, then did a little more comparison shopping. (He was looking for 1/2 sheet cake size pans and we are looking for a small chest freezer.) Once home again Spouse took a nap and I watched TV and played around on Facebook. We had dinner at Irish Eyes Pub with Steven & Thad. I had a tasty sandwich of turkey, cole slaw, and thousand island dressing on pumpernickel bread, with fries. Spouse had cajun chicken pasta. The 4 of us returned to our house and watched "Bruno". Like everyone else, we found it to be funny in parts but not as good as "Borat". Afterward we split the 2 huge pieces of Jared's cheese cake between the 4 of us.

Sun we had brunch with our friends Koset & Jim. I had french toast with a side of scrapple. Mmmm, good! We met them at the car club dinner and awards banquet last Sept, and learned that they live 1 block from where Spouse & I 1st lived together in VA. They also have a house in Rehoboth Beach and spent the New Year's weekend there. We had a great time getting to know them better and the time just flew by. Later Spouse (finally) found is 1/2 sheet cake pans at a good price, and then picked up some groceries for our new healthy eating plan. He roasted yellow, zucchini, and acorn squash, eggplant, mushrooms, and grape tomatoes with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar. He also roasted 6 boneless chicken breasts and a steak. Now that the cooking has mostly been done, for dinner this week we'll just need to heat up the meat and vegetables and season (if necessary).

We capped off our long weekend by indulging in some soon-to-be forbidden flavors, as our diet begins on Mon. We met Steven & Thad at Purple Parrot where I had an absurdly large platter of nachos and beer. And as if that pig-out wasn't enough, we stopped at Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream on the way home! I was so full from dinner that I barely managed to eat my delicious combination of dark chocolate and peanut butter flavored ice cream. I felt as if I were going to explode.

Now, I will go ahead and say what I know you're all thinking: "It sounds like you ate the entire weekend!" I don't blame you; its basically true. We over-indulged the entire weekend because we felt like it was our last chance (for a while, at least) to enjoy these decadent foods and treats. See, Steven & Thad and Spouse & I all 4 started new eating plans today. Although using somewhat different methods, our shared goal is to reduce our portion sizes, reduce our consumption of processed foods, and increase our consumption of fresh, natural veggies and fruit. Along with increased exercise, we anticipate our healthy eating plans will result in weight loss and a better overall feeling about ourselves. So this past weekend - a holiday weekend - was our last chance to indulge our love for tasty, fatty, sweet, fried foods.

I'd say we took full advantage of that opportunity.

Crush du Jour: Ian Somerhalder