I’m probably putting too much thought into this intro, but I feel the pressure to start my first post of 2016 with something as sparkly, fresh and inspirational as the beginning of a new year!  Lest I should waste any more time on that, I think I’ll just jump right in.  That attitude’s gotta mean something good for this year, right?

We started NYE with pizza and uh… the bomb squad?  Police were all over the area when we showed up to dinner and we later learned someone had been shot in the foot and the shooter had barricaded themselves in the neighborhood.  They were about to shoot off tear gas when we finished eating and I said “TIME TO GO!”  Despite all the excitement, we were still able to ooh and ahh over the pizza at Cart-Driver.  That clam pizza is life-changing.

We headed to the Avs game afterwards and even though they ended up losing, it was an exciting game.  The problem with hockey is that goals are hard to come by and if you look away for a few seconds, you might miss one!  I’m kind of a people watcher and find it so hard to focus on the actual game sometimes 🙂  P.S. I like that second candid picture better than the first posed one.  Also, I cut 4″ off my hair!!!  New year, new do.

We ended the night at a little NYE party.  We played darts, watched the ball drop, ate salted caramel brownies (that I made earlier that day while playing hooky from work…) and left promptly after the clock struck midnight.  And we weren’t the only ones to do that, so in other words, the struggle to be over 25 is real and these are MY people!

Can I just tell you how nice it was to wake up on the 1st of January and NOT feel hung-over?  Last year, I was couch-ridden all day and felt terrible.  This year, I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, made pancakes, sipped coffee and felt like 2016 was thee year.  Or something!

My mom cooks a celebratory dinner every New Year but after hosting Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas, I felt she deserved a break, so we offered to host.  Basically, Joey cleaned up all our Christmas decorations (bye, real tree!) and I spent most the day in the kitchen cooking.  I was in my happy place FOR REAL.

I made pork tenderloin, Brussels and bacon, wild rice and a chocolate peppermint cake that I thought was gluten-free but totally wasn’t.  Mom brought chocolate cream pie and the leftovers are in my fridge so I’m winning 2016 so far.  Also, the pork was the loveliest shade of light pink until I decided to “keep it warm” in the oven and instead cooked it to a less lovely shade of gray.  But you know what I’ve learned?  Never diss your own food in public.  You’re way harder on yourself than anyone else is going to be.  My heart was so full after having my family over 🙂

Rounded out Saturday and Sunday with a trip to the gym, The Danish Girl (we really liked it!), breakfast sandwiches, shopping, prep for the work week and Joey making me the most delicious salad for dinner.  And even though I’m back at work after having four days off and I didn’t even have coffee, I’m feeling okay about it.

I usually come up with some theme or goal for the year, and even though I thought a fair amount about having one for this year, I couldn’t really come up with anything definite.  Sure, I wanna be a little more mindful, intentional and confident this year but I also feel like trusting myself enough to know those things will happen without me setting some grand plan.  I guess the only things I really want to resolve to do this year are travel and eat more burritos 🙂

How did you ring in the New Year?

Did you make a New Year’s resolution?

What are you looking forward to most in 2016?