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December was a little busy. As in, I forgot to post to LJ through the entire month. Meep! In a nutshell: We finished our Christmas shopping early. We did some post Nano stuff because the Austin Nano people are way cool. I auditioned for Man of La Mancha and despite a dismal and utterly unprepared vocal audition, got the part of the Moorish dancer. I may have a lead on a long-term subbing position, but will address that more later if it pans out. I dragged my mother to a yoga class. Dean started martial arts. We went to Lubbock for Christmas, where it was very cold and snowy and involved small boys being far too energetic, but it was still really wonderful to see family. We came home Christmas day and ate tamales for Christmas dinner with Mom.
*pants* Okay, I think that's it in a snapshot. Let's talk about New Year's Eve!
Dean suggested a campfire, and we thought it was a brilliant idea! We live out in the middle of nowhere, but with enough neighbors that we got to watch all their fancy fireworks. Dean set up a circle of limestone rocks (our hill is made of limestone, so we have more than enough), then built up the firewood. First hitch...hey, we don't have newspaper or lighter fluid. Whoops. We used sticks, leaves, dead grass, and old bills as kindling. Lemme tell you, burning old bills? Vastly cathartic! He also used rubbing alcohol in place of lighter fluid. Yeah, no more need be said there. Finally Mom found an old copy of the Austin Chronical and we stuffed that in. Turns out the wood was damp, but once it got to burning, it made this fabulous hissing sound, very peaceful. We had a bag of hickory chips to add too. We discovered later during dinner that tortillas make fabulous kindling, but marshmallows do not.
For dinner, I boiled up some bratwursts in good beer and we had those in said tortillas, plus campfire baked potatoes, and the marshmallows for dessert. There was also alcohol in profusion, but we stayed pretty tame. Mostly, we sat around the campfire in the mildly warm evening and talked, played with the dogs, and ate. About 10 or so, we shot off fireworks. I spent a lot of time writing positive words in the air in sparkler, which while silly, made me feel good. I have also discovered that my mother does not realize one should not set fireworks off near someone else who is not expecting it. She found this wildly hilarious. Bad Mom! Bad! ;) At midnight, we broke out the sparkling wine and went up the hill to watch everyone else in the valley shoot off fireworks, which was a seriously impressive sight. The clouds had pulled away at that point too, and the whole sky was lit up with stars.
Sometimes, there's advantages to living out in the country.
And then we put out the last of the fire, cleaned up, and everyone else went to bed, and I stayed up and nattered at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tajnyj.
The perfect way to bring in the new year, in my opinion. :)
*pants* Okay, I think that's it in a snapshot. Let's talk about New Year's Eve!
Dean suggested a campfire, and we thought it was a brilliant idea! We live out in the middle of nowhere, but with enough neighbors that we got to watch all their fancy fireworks. Dean set up a circle of limestone rocks (our hill is made of limestone, so we have more than enough), then built up the firewood. First hitch...hey, we don't have newspaper or lighter fluid. Whoops. We used sticks, leaves, dead grass, and old bills as kindling. Lemme tell you, burning old bills? Vastly cathartic! He also used rubbing alcohol in place of lighter fluid. Yeah, no more need be said there. Finally Mom found an old copy of the Austin Chronical and we stuffed that in. Turns out the wood was damp, but once it got to burning, it made this fabulous hissing sound, very peaceful. We had a bag of hickory chips to add too. We discovered later during dinner that tortillas make fabulous kindling, but marshmallows do not.
For dinner, I boiled up some bratwursts in good beer and we had those in said tortillas, plus campfire baked potatoes, and the marshmallows for dessert. There was also alcohol in profusion, but we stayed pretty tame. Mostly, we sat around the campfire in the mildly warm evening and talked, played with the dogs, and ate. About 10 or so, we shot off fireworks. I spent a lot of time writing positive words in the air in sparkler, which while silly, made me feel good. I have also discovered that my mother does not realize one should not set fireworks off near someone else who is not expecting it. She found this wildly hilarious. Bad Mom! Bad! ;) At midnight, we broke out the sparkling wine and went up the hill to watch everyone else in the valley shoot off fireworks, which was a seriously impressive sight. The clouds had pulled away at that point too, and the whole sky was lit up with stars.
Sometimes, there's advantages to living out in the country.
And then we put out the last of the fire, cleaned up, and everyone else went to bed, and I stayed up and nattered at
tajnyj. The perfect way to bring in the new year, in my opinion. :)
