Winter doldrums

Wake me when it's March?

Every year near the end of January, I get tired of the cold, the gray, the blah. I succumb to the winter doldrums — the primary culprit for my recent case of blogger's block. I wish I were a bear, so I could just hibernate until it's all over with or could fly somewhere warm like the birds do. We just aren't meant to stick around when the temperature drops and the skies grow gray. That's my theory anyway.

So what can you do if you can't up and go to Jamaica for the next three months? Here are a few options.

1. Exercise. The lazy, winter fat-padded me ughs at this suggestion, but, as we all learned in "Legally Blonde," "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands, they just don't." And happy people don't eat an entire jar of Nutella staring out into the great gray abyss wearing their bathrobe, either. Get up and get moving. Since no one likes to go running in 10 degree weather, find a local gym or workout in your own home. I've enjoyed Zumba for the Wii (a one-time $40 purchase versus a monthly gym membership. Plus no one witnesses my lack of coordination), and YouTube is full of workout videos. (Might I offer up the SparkPeople channel. Their 15-minute abs and six-minute butt-blasting workout are two of my favorites.)

2. Keep busy. While bundling up like that kid from "A Christmas Story" just to go out for dinner might not sound appealing, maintaining your friendships and staying busy is a great way to keep the winter blahs away. The worst thing you could do is isolate yourself. Go to dinner, see a movie, have your friends over and play games — anything to connect yourself with people. 

3. Start something new. Did you get a new kitchen gadget for Christmas? See an interesting craft on your favorite blog? See Miss Arkansas' yodeling ventriloquist act on Miss America? Would you like to learn to do the same? Well, take advantage of all your indoor time and whip up something yummy, cozy or creepy. I've been crocheting like a crazy person since the temperatures dropped, and it's nice to have something to point at and say, "Hey! I'm productive." 

4. Day dream. If all else fails, just think of somewhere warm and sandy. That always gives me the boost I need.

(If you can up and go to Jamaica, though, give me a call. I'm small and won't take up much room. You'll hardly know I'm there.) 

Snow day!

 About 3-4 inches in our yard

One of the joys of working in higher education is that I get some of the perks of being an educator without really having to educate. A snow day is one of those perks. When the flurries finally showed up at our house (5 p.m., right when they were supposed to), I already had my fingers crossed for an unexpected three-day weekend. 

Although I didn't sleep with my pj's inside-out, the guaranteed way to conjure up a snow day as my sister and I learned years ago, the snow still kept me out of work today. 

 

I decided to try something new on my first snow day of the year — snow cream. I'd never made any before and thought it'd be a nice way to celebrate my snowed-in state. The steps I used can be found here, but I divided everything by four since I was just making it for myself.

I mixed 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup milk and 1/2 tsp. of vanilla in the mixing bowl before I went outside.

Then I scooped 2 cups of snow from the backyard and added it to the bowl. (The site I used stressed to avoid snow of the yellow variety.)

I mixed the snow into the mixture until it had a creamy texture. I must have looked like a crazy person, crouched out on my patio in my pj's, rain boots, giant scarf and a mixing bowl. This is why I need kids on a snow day. No one thinks a grown woman doing these things is crazy when kids are around.

Once inside, I quickly transfered the snow cream into a bowl and added some chocolate chips for good measure. I had to eat quickly as the snow cream was quickly turning into snow soup. It was really good!

I hope you had a safe and warm snow day! Now I guess I'll go do something productive, like the laundry.

View from the front door

Bittersweet

Tuesday night was a sad night in the Hannigan home. Our beloved Razorbacks just couldn't seem to get it together (or catch the football) and lost to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl. By the way we drug ourselves the house during the following 24 hours, you would've thought our puppy ran away or that someone punched our grandma. But, alas, there's always next year.

Let's recap the better times that got us here in the first place, shall we?

There was the first game of the season and our long weekend adventures, followed by my first visit to War Memorial Stadium where we sweated a lot and almost lost the truck. Then we tailgated and played bean bag toss leading up to our loss against Alabama. I compiled a list of my favorite football cheers, in case you found yourself lacking in that department. We enjoyed the last game of the season with Rusty and Cassie (it was also her first Razorback game), and then we trekked to Starkville to watch the Razorbacks take on Mississippi State in a nail-biting, double overtime victory.

Despite our lost, I'm still proud to say "it's hard to be humble when you're an Arkansas Razorbacks fan!"



See you next year!

So you say you've got a resolution

Happy 2011 everyone! Hope you had a happy and safe time ringing in the new year. I stayed in and off the streets as my mom has it drilled into my head that all the crazies and drunks will be on the roads that night.

And since the new year is now upon us, so are the ever-dreaded new year's resolutions. Usually, I try not to set one since it'll probably fall by the wayside by Jan. 3, but this year I've decided to set a few in hopes that at least one will stick with me until March. Maybe having them in writing will help me out this time.

Here's my list:

1. Read the Bible in its entirety. I'm ashamed to say that while I've read every Harry Potter book at least twice, I've never read the book on which my entire life is based completely through even once. I asked Scott last night if he'd read the Bible completely. He said that, while he had never gone from start to finish in a set amount of time, he was sure that over the years he had read everything in it. I don't feel like I can say the same. I'm sure there are passages that I've never seen before, and I want to remedy that. I've found a website with several different lists for daily reading (start to finish, chronological, some New Testament and some Old Testament, etc.) and have the chronological list printed and ready to be marked off.

2. Run a 5K. My on again, off again love/hate relationship with my treadmill has been well documented here (like this or this), but I'm determined to stay the course this time and run at least one 5K this year. Once that's marked off, I'm toying with the idea of a 10K, but I'm not going to let my eyes get bigger than my stomach — or my running shoes or whatever.

3. Complain less. While this is one of those unquantifiable goals, I want to stop myself from being such a Debbie Downer. If I can stop myself from complaining at least once a day, I think that would be a big improvement and would probably cut back on other complaints throughout the day. Most of the time, it's because I don't have anything else to say, so I feel the need to moan about the weather, my shoes, the computer, or whatever. I don't want most of my conversations with people to be negative, griping ones. I want to be a more positive person and for my speech to reflect that.

Have you set a resolution for 2011? What is it? I promise to encourage you in yours if you help me with mine. Let's make 2011 a great one!

Christmas Card Conundrum

If you haven't already found one of these in your mailbox (or we didn't send you one — awkward), this little lovely is the 2010 Hannigan Christmas card.

I didn't think about it until the batch arrived and I started stuffing them into envelopes, but is it a little conceited that beside a picture of us we have, in large type, the word "joy"? That joy is easily attained just by finding our faces in your mailbox? However, we are the couple who, for our first Christmas, gave picture frames to our family members so that they would be able to frame and display our wedding pictures. (Hey, we'd just gotten married 10 days before!) And then, for our second Christmas, we gave pictures of ourselves to our family members (these were also accompanied by frames, this time Christmas themed).

So, are we vain? Well, when you look this good, I like to think of it as a public service.

(Sometimes sarcasm doesn't translate into type very well, so might I emphasize that that last line is meant to drip with it. Add a heavy eye roll just to drive home the point.)

And while we're on the subject of Christmas cards, here is how we're displaying ours this year. It beats laying them along the kitchen counter like last year.  Do you see yours?

Yuletide Traditions: Mimi's fudge

My second Christmas as a married woman marked my first one away from home.

And while I loved being a part of new traditions with Scott's side of the family (like how each person opens their gifts one-at-a-time for everyone to watch and not in an every-man-for-himself fury of paper and ribbon like mine) I found myself searching replacements for what I would be missing out on by not being with my family.

There was one thing that despite my best attempts proved irreplaceable.

The joy of family? The smile on my young cousins' faces? The warmth of being home?

No.

It was my Mimi's fudge.

The top layer is mine. The bottom layer is also mine. If there's a third layer, you can bet it's mine, too.

I know it seems an incredibly shallow (and caloric) thing to say. That Christmas I found myself eating a lot of fudge made by a lot of people, and none of it measured up to Mimi's. Some had nuts. Some was too dry. Some was too chewy. Some was just plain nasty. (I think some was made with Sweet 'n Low. Yuck.) It just wasn't the same.

At Christmastime, I remember searching Mimi's pantry for one thing — the plaid tin wherein lay layers of small, rich, chocolaty squares separated by plastic wrap. One piece found its way onto my plate, then two and, when no one was looking, number three. There are few things that her fudge can't cure when accompanied by a big glass of milk in her living room.

What makes hers my favorite is definitely who makes it, where I am when I have it, and those I have to fight for the last piece. If warmth and love are the feelings of Christmas, the squeals of delight are the sounds, and the sights are of your family members' faces lighting up as they open a gift or the lights on the tree, then Mimi's fudge is the taste of Christmas. Missing out on that was one more reminder that things were going to be a little different from now on.

Since then, Mimi has made and frozen my own tin of fudge before Thanksgiving so that I might have that little piece of home regardless of where I might be spending Christmas. The best part is that now I don't have to share.

Yuletide Traditions: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Despite the fact that the sound of Rudolph's nose lighting up sends me into seizures, this claymation wonder is still one of my favorites. It's a little random at times, and the nudity of the Abominable Snowman weirds me out, but it's been a part of my Christmas memories for as long as I can remember.

And while I thought Rudolph and his song were pretty much the same for everyone, it wasn't until Christmas chapel a few years ago that I learned this wasn't the case. In the midst of slamming song books and jingling car keys, a years-long debate between Scott and me was born. While the crowd was wrapping up "Rudolph" and singing "you'll go down in history," I interjected my usual "Like George Washington!" while Scott said "Like Columbus!"

"Wait. What? Columbus?" I asked him. He only looked at me in the same confused way. "George Washington doesn't even flow right." We both agreed to disagree. (Little does he know, our future child will sing George Washington.)

Since then, whenever Christmas and Rudolph roll around, we begin the grand debate again. I even poll those around me. My very scientific Facebook findings have led me to believe that it's an Arkansas thing, as Arkansans are the only ones I've found who say Columbus.

So, claim your side now. Are you a Washington or Columbus?