Hau'oli Makahiki Hou, Y'all!

Hello from a chilly New England at the start of 2014.

I spent last night working at our First Night Hartford celebration.  Every year I've been working at the Wadsworth Atheneum for their mask-making activity, then help clean up and go to FNHHQ for my evening assignment.  This year it was selling wristbands at one of the outdoor locations; past years I have checked for wristbands at venues or sold them at City Hall.  Another woman named Megan was all event in the little shack outside the Bushnell Park Carousel, I took over from a man named Frank at 6:00pm and was there until we were told to close up about 10:30pm.  Although the event continued, people would not need wristbands after then.  It was a COLD night but we both had bundled up in layers and Megan brought a small portable heater.

Today is a beautiful brilliant blue sky and sunny, very optimistic start to the new year.  And COLD, so I am putting the microfleece sheets on my bed.  Also mostly doing "house-elf" stuff, and might get together with one of my knitting groups later.  We're still deciding.

In the interest of tradition, I left a crockpot with black-eyed peas bubbling, and ate a bowl for breakfast (I was too full of tamales, veggie wraps, and chips to eat when I got home from First Night) which may not be traditional but was tasty on a chilly morning.

Also in the interest of tradition, I made some resolutions, which I hereby announce so we can keep track of how well I do this year:

• Each month I will try doing one new thing.  And it cannot be a variation on something I have done before - snorkeling in new waters, or going for brunch to a restaurant where I've been only for supper, or sorting food donations at the food pantry at whose mobile distribution trucks I've volunteered for several years.  This might take some real thought.
• I will try to keep this blog more up-to-date, hopefully blogging at least once per month.
• I am going to update either my kitchen or my upstairs bathroom.

So keep your eye on the blog to see how I do over the course of 2014.