Tardy for the party

Happy New Year!! Errr... a bit belatedly!

Don't mind this teacher's tardiness. It's all I can do to get my body back on school schedule and not "stay-up-until-2:00 am- looking-at-endless-trailers-on-You-Tube-and-then-sleep-in-until-11:00" time. Winter break rocks my world. :)

Sorry also for the cheesiest title ever.

Since NYE is "amateur night", we try to stay out of the bump-bumpin' clubs and scary roads. This year we just did dinner out together and then some champagne and games with friends. Oh, and the new Italian restaurant where we ate calamari, steak, and the best tiramisu was our twelfth new restaurant in Richmond this year. Yes, this means we completed our resolution to try 12 new restaurants in 2011! Yay for finally completing a resolution, albeit a totally easy, indulgent one. More on all that deliciousness tomorrow!

Dan and I kept our New Year's Day traditions, which include:

Buying a lottery ticket

The above picture is from last year. Ours for this year isn't a scratcher. We'll be watching the drawing to see if we're millionaires tonight. And cashing a surfboard size check tomorrow.

Registering for the HGTV Dream Home
Every year, HGTV starts a contest for a dream home on New Year's Day. We're all in. You see, Dan's the eternal optimist who really thinks he has a real shot at winning any contest. I'm totally all about home shows and blogs. Put us together and you have a couple who tries daily to win the dream home. Every. Single. Year. And feels genuinely pissy when we don't win. :)

Making brinner As I wrote last year, I once went to a wedding where the couple served breakfast food for dinner because "you have breakfast when you start something new". So sweet and fun and unconventional. It's the beginning of a new year, so I have adopted this as our tradition. Really, though, any excuse for waffles works for me.

As for resolutions, I tried to come up with something fun, like my 2009 one to "take more photos". Dan suggested that I do a "try six new things", which seemed conveniently vague, so I may do that. I've toyed with coming up with a different date idea each month, or learning to play tennis. I'll let you know what I settle on.

** Update:  We decided to try twelve new things (restaurants, activities, ventures, etc.) this year.  

Honestly, I am loving reading all of the blog resolution posts. Some are so ambitious and impressive, which inspire me to want to sweat it out at the gym. Others are refreshingly sweet, like "keep life simple" and "just be". I love the latter. I have a tendency to want to jam too many goals in at once, so there was something about that one that stuck with me.

I thought I'd leave this first post of 2012 with a peak at one definite goal:

Bring the beret back in style.

This very blurry, iPhone pic is of Dan and I sporting berets.

Think we'll succeed in igniting a trend? :)

Why are we wearing these stylin' hats? They were a gag gift from my sister-in-law Emily. She wanted to help us look tres chic because Dan and I are going to France later this year! Can you tell we're excited??

Side note: I'm pretty sure if we wear these for a novelty photo in front of the Eiffel Tower, we will be the most hated Americans in Paris ever.

If any of you have been to France and have tips or suggestions, this girl is all ears.

Au Revoir, 2011. Bonjour, 2012!

pictures via here