Happy New Year

This is hopefully a year of wonderful things- we did all the right things to ensure that, i.e: had pork and sauerkraut for dinner on New Years Day. This is an old Pennsylvania Dutch tradition and Mike was insistent. Having never made it before, I did pretty well. I threw the pork roast in the crock pot with hard cider, chicken stock, garlic, onion, salt and pepper and let it all go for about 8 hours. It was divine...

January 3 did not start well. I was working the weekend and when I got out of the shower at 6am, Jasper was crying to go out. Mike was still asleep, so while still in a towel, I walked into the garage with Jasper and promptly stepped on the edge of the rug, twisted the bad ankle, and fell on the garage floor. Poor Mike was woken up by my screams and found me essentially naked on the garage floor, in tears. He picked me up and put me on the couch, brought me water, advil and ice, and then insisted that I get it xrayed. Xrays revealed no fracture but there are bone chips in the joint and the tendons are calcified from multiple injuries to them. I need to make an appointment to follow up with the orthopedist. In the meantime, I am supposed to be on crutches and Jasper is practicing his nursing techniques. (Actually, he is practicing not leaping on the ankle).

Christmas was the usual fun with all of us home to my parents house in North Jersey, only this year it included Mike. I was worried that he would feel out of place as we are close and loud and Christmas can only be described as intimate in our family (my sister Helen coined that description and it really does nail it). I should not have been worried, my family has embraced Mike from the first time he joined us and Christmas was no different. We all had fun and dinner was its usual barrel of laughs.

Mike and I spent the following weekend with my parents in a low key, relaxed way of reading, naps, and tracking my sisters journey to pick up their two puppies. Saturday night, Mike found time alone with my Dad to ask for his blessing in asking me to marry him. Mike says it was a nice talk but shared no other information other than that blessings were given. This of course prompted congratulations from my brother but he has yet to ask me... I will let you know when it happens.

Here's hoping that this is a happy, healthy, wonderful New Year for all my blogger friends!