Are You Ready To Party?

It's New Year's Eve, time to pull out that little black dress and spit shine your dancing shoes.  Or, if you're me, it's not time for any of that.  Let's face it, I'm a 34 year old in a 74 year old body and have no desire to go out on the town on New Year's Eve.  I don't like going out at dark time and I certainly don't like being in the same room with a bunch of drunken idiots.

The only exciting thing happening around  here is that I'm making turkey pot pie for dinner.  And, unless you're Craig, who happens to love pot pie, that's really not very exciting at all.

Because I have nothing of interest to share with you on this last day of 2010, I thought I'd do a little year in review post.  Here are just a few of the things that happened in the Neurotic Household this past year.

In January, we celebrated Caroline's 8th birthday.

In February we wished Craig a happy 39th birthday and sent him off on his deployment on the same day.


It also snowed on that day.  The first of back to back blizzards.

I did a lot of shoveling

and Caroline had the time of her life.

In March, I earned my grease monkey stripes when I replaced Craig's dead battery.

Caroline and I also went to Krispy Kreme where we had way too much fun

watching the doughnut machine malfunction.

We also pondered what it would be like to have our own glaze waterfall.

In  April, we went to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC.

We also saw Julia Child's kitchen at the American History Museum,

and went on a short walking tour of Old Town, Alexandria.

In May, Caroline ran in her first 5k race.

and played a lot of soccer.

In June, she played even more soccer, in a tournament that was held in 95 degree weather.

We also celebrated or mourned (depending on your point of view) the first day of summer vacation.  I also had to clean up bright red Baby Bottle Pop candy from our carpet that one of our neighbors spilled.

In July, Caroline and I flew to Florida to spend two weeks with my parents.

That's where I fell in love with golf carts.

We went to the beach

fed some cows (and an elephant!)

and Caroline got her ears pierced.

We also celebrated Craig's promotion to CW3.



In August, I broke my trusty pink camera

and bought a new one that I hated from the very beginning, even though it was a lovely shade of plum.


We also welcomed Craig home from Aghanistan!


In September we did some sight seeing and saw the White House for the first time.

September also brought with it, the first day of third grade.

I was also abducted by aliens and forced, against my will, to register to run the Disney World Marathon.

At the end of September, Craig and I kick started our 16 week long marathon training plan with an 8 mile run in Washington, DC.


In October, on a VERY HOT day, we went to the pumpkin patch.

Craig ran his fourth Army 10 Miler; I ran my first.

I broke my second camera in October, as well.  I didn't like it much, but I didn't mean to kill it.

Unfortunately, the camera broke on Halloween, so I have very few pictures of Caroline in her runner costume.

In November, I got a new camera.  The camera I had been wanting all along.

We also ran in Ft. Belvoir's turkey trot race.

Caroline won her age division AND a 14lb Butterball turkey!

I celebrated my 34th (gasp!) birthday in November, by making a tragic birthday cake.

It looked pretty, but tasted gross.

In December, we braved the cold temperatures and ran in the Girls on the Run Reindeer Romp 5k.

I did a LOT of baking in December.  Most of it turned out great,

but some of it royally flopped.

And lastly, towards the end of December we visited the ICE!  Experience at the Gaylord National.

All in all, I think 2010 was a pretty good year.  Craig survived his deployment; Caroline is as smart and good natured as ever; we all have strong and healthy bodies.  Of course, the year wasn't without its challenges, but I suppose that is just part of life.  Hopefully the challenges I'm presented with in 2011 will be met with patience and plenty of good humor.

Thank you so much for stoping by and reading my little blog this year; it really means the world to me.  I'm not very interesting; I don't travel the world or do anything particularly exciting; I don't have interesting tales to tell and if I did, I certainly wouldn't tell them all that well.  I'm just an exercise loving, baking addicted control freak with too much time on my hands and I'm thankful for each and every one of you.

I look forward to sharing 2011 with you:  the good, the bad and the ugly tasty.

Happy New Year!

Cookie Dough Truffles

Because I didn't make enough Oreo truffles last week, and certainly because Craig's co workers haven't eaten enough butter, sugar and chocolate lately, I made a batch of cookie dough truffles on Tuesday.

Raw (egg free) cookie dough, scooped into balls and dipped in chocolate.

In the words of my beloved Ina Garten, how bad can that be?

Who doesn't love a little cookie dough action?  Even I, the highly neurotic housewife who is generally afraid of things containing raw eggs, have been known to sneak a taste or two of raw cookie dough.  It's like a magnetic force, or something.

These truffles look good (except for the ugly ones I had trouble dipping) and they certainly look like they taste great.  I mean, really... cookie dough + chocolate.  How could it get any better? 

But honestly, they're just okay.

They're not horrible; I've certainly eaten worse things in my life, but they're not as fabulous as I had expected.

It's as if they're missing something.  Or, perhaps my standards are too high?

Hopefully Craig's co workers will enjoy them, despite my lukewarm impression.

So on Tuesday night, when I was dipping truffles for Wednesday treat day, I turned to Caroline, and said 'good news, dad doesn't have to go to work tomorrow (Wednesday), so you don't have to go to the gym with me.' 

A few minutes later, Craig yells down to me 'hey Alison, I don't have to go to work tomorrow.'  To which I replied in a less than meek and mild mannered way, 'I know.'  I may or may not have rolled my eyes, too.  Because, hello, I already knew he was taking Wednesday off. 

And then I went back to dipping truffles for tomorrow (Wednesday).  Truffles which were to be given to Craig's co workers on Wednesday....aka, the day he wasn't going to be at work.

D'oh.

Sometimes my oblivion is astounding. 

In fact, sometimes I find myself wondering how I've managed to successfully keep Caroline alive all these years.

I'm not one for new years resolutions, but I'm thinking some sort of brain sharpening supplement might be a wise purchase for the upcoming new year.  Clearly the steady stream of butter, sugar and chocolate I've introduced my body to is working its magic no more.