Should auld acquantance be forgot

Happy New Year, folks. Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. Since I've been home it has been extremely hectic, plus I haven't really been in a posting mood.

Not long after I got home, I went to New York with my sister to see her wedding dress and to help her pick out a veil. She got her dress at Kleinfeld's, which you may recognize from the TLC show Say Yes to the Dress. That was very exciting, and it's always fun to do a little New York trip over the vacation (even though it was FREEZING).

Other than that, I haven't done much. A bit of shopping. A bit of reading. Watching my youngest sister, who is "in between schools" at the moment.

Christmas was very quiet. We went to church and to my grandfather's house on Christmas Eve, and my brother's girlfriend's family came over for dinner. On Christmas day we had my godfather (he just stopped by to visit) and my grandfather's cousin, who doesn't have any immediate family. On the Friday before, we went to the Christmas party at the assisted living community where my mom works. (My mom supervises an Alzheimer's unit there.) What I liked best about it is how much my youngest sister liked helping the residents. She is in the teenage "me me meeeeeeeeeee" phase, so it is nice to see her care about others. On Sunday we had my sister and her fiancé over, since they went to his family's house for Christmas.

This was the first time in a while when I feel like I really did well with the present-buying. For example, I got my youngest brother a Spiderman comic book (a "graphic novel," I guess), and he was totally obsessed with it - he didn't want to open anything else! And I got my sister and her fiancé the champagne flutes for their wedding (I got their names and the date - 06-07-08 - on them), and she loved them - she even cried, which surprised me. I got another present for my parents, but as it has not arrived yet and I suspect that they read this blog, I will not go into detail about it here. In any case, I think they will love it.

I don't usually make resolutions for New Year's, but I have two this year and I'm really serious about them. The first one is to lose weight for my sister's wedding. I don't have a particular goal (I don't obsess over clothing sizes), but I do care about the fact that I will be in pictures that she will have for the rest of her life. I don't have a specific plan in place yet, but I do have some ideas - no more vending machine or hall desserts, no Coke, and trying the vegetarian option a few times a week. I also plan to use our college gym regularly and/or finding a place to swim.

The other one is to be a better correspondent. I'm terrible about returning emails and phone calls, and I want to improve on that. I also want to catch up with friends with whom I've lost touch. Part of this stems from the fact that this year will be my 10-year reunion from high school, and I've been thinking a lot about what these people have been up to all these years.

On that note, I'm off to call Chrissie in California, who has been trying to call me for a few days and I've been terrible about getting back to her.

Happy 2008, folks! Let's make it a good one.
Kxxx