Things to Do - Grateful List (January 2016)

For the most part, January was somewhat uneventful, with the exception of two big events - (1) the great blizzard and (2) my 40th birthday.

Dan planned this hysterically fun "frat" party for the occasion, with beer pong, flip cup, jello shots, and a house full of good friends. To make it even more special, FIVE of my best friends drove/flew in from throughout the country to celebrate with me. Do you know how amazing it feels to have so many people you love all in one space for the night? Plus between the free t-shirts and random dance music, we stayed up until 3:30 in the morning. Maybe 40 really is the new 20.

ARTS
* The Peanuts movie at Arlington Drafthouse on New Years Day.
* Watching How to Make a Murderer (Netflix streaming)
* Listening to the Beatles on Spotify
* Reading the The Neopolitan novels
* Watching Overboard and Tootsie with the kids

FOOD
* Dan's brisket (recipe from Food52 Genius Recipes: 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook)
* Rose's Luxury for my birthday dinner
* Kapnos for my birthday lunch

STUFF
* My amazing globe (my friend Janeese purchased a globe for my birthday and then everybody signed it at my party). One of my favorite gifts ever.

ETC.
* In one week, I was able to talk to a South African about growing up listening to Rodriguez's music (made famous in Searching for Sugarman) and a Chilean about teenage life in Chile during the NO campaign (which brought down a dictator), making me realize that I have the coolest/most diverse group of friends and I'm so lucky to know each and every one of them.
* My amazing 40th birthday party and a weekend with my best friends!
* T and his friends making our basement into a pirate ship (it was too cold for the outside fort)
* Three neighborhood happy hours during the great blizzard of 2016
* Playing Lost Cities as a family night after night.
* "Now can you start teaching me important stuff - like how to work the dishwasher?" - T
* My kids overcoming blizzard boredom on their own - T making weapons, F trying out science experiments, and P drawing unicorns

THE KIDS' LISTS

F - A nice house to live in and food to eat, that everything is so great, my family

P - snugglefests, reading the Princess Bride with you at night, happy hour, sleepovers, snow

T - Playing 3 rounds of Lost Cities, reading the Bobsey Twins, a nice house to live in and food to eat, building a snow fort, Cole's birthday party, Kung Fu Panda 3, our weapons cache