Greeting 2012 with Reindeer Antlers

Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope you have had a wonderful holiday and are heading into the new year with excitement for the year ahead! 

We have started the post-holiday return to normal life around here, still savoring the lovely Christmas celebrations we shared with friends and family, and then a long visit with friends who came to visit from Maine for several days. We are still surrounded by holiday decor, and it'll stay up for a while yet.  We all find it cheerful and 'm not ready for the big job of taking it all down, anyway.  Our neighbors across the street decorate their yards to the hilt, and I am always amused by the Fu dogs wearing reindeer antlers that sit on their front porch. 
 
Our fridge is still full of the rich leftovers from holiday meals -- this morning I saw a bottle of champagne with 1/4 left in it, a few pieces of crab leftover from our New Year's Eve feast of cracked fresh crab, the pan-fried noodles we brought home from a dinner at Francis Ford Coppola's "Rustic" restaurant the other night ... and I didn't even venture into the breadbox which currently holds a still-large amount of holiday cookies.  Into the freezer those will go, I think, to save for a dreary January day.  I am craving simple food. 

So I am off to switch out another load of laundry, pop into the grocery store, drop some things off at the dry cleaners ... and maybe when those chores are done I can do my first sewing of 2012.  At some point before Christmas, I started chain piecing some simple blocks for a donation quilt, and they are still in progress under the needle!  Straight sewing will be just about my speed today.

Happy 2012, everyone!