Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a joyous holiday season. I know I did - I've been off of work since the Wednesday before Christmas, and it has been sooo nice! We went home to MI for Christmas, and as usual, it's always a whirlwind visit. We never have enough time for everything we want to do, yet we are always anxious to get back home to the cats and to do some relaxing.

This year, our trip to the outlet mall at Birch Run resulted in a detour to the wonderful town of Frankenmuth, MI. I had completely forgotten that Frankenmuth was at the same exit as Birch Run, and since we had only a few stores on our itinerary, we headed first to Frankenmuth. It's probably been a good 15 years since I've been there, and my has it changed. There are now several new hotels, including one with a water park! Bronner's has expanded immensely, and there are many more shops than there used to be. We only had a couple hours to spend, so we first headed to Zehnder's for their famous chicken dinner (well, lunch). We were lucky enough to get in before the crowds, so we didn't have to wait for a table. Lunch was wonderful, and I was able to pick up some of their chicken seasoning that I so enjoy.

After lunch we headed to the Frankenmuth Woolen Mill. I've had a wool comforter from there for most of my life, and I love them! I have been wanting to get another one for a while now, as I have multiple bedrooms to outfit. So, I got a new queen-sized comforter (on sale for 20% off!), as well as a great Donna Sharp pinecone quilt set for camp for 40% off! (now I wish I had bought a second one!). Time was running short, so we didn't go to Bronner's, but agreed we'd like to come back for another visit some time this year.

The trip to Birch Run was productive as well, as the Le Creuset outlet store was still having a 35% off sale, and I got a 3.5 qt multi-purpose pan - the lid is actually a small frying pan!

We drove back on Tuesday - the trip was fairly uneventful, with the exception of a bit of lake-effect snow in Canada and around Syracuse. The kitties were so glad to see us!

The rest of this week has been dedicated to unpacking, organizing, undecorating and resolution preparation. I really do plan to work on my health and fitness this year - I need to start exercising again, in order to get back into shape. Even if I just start out with my Wii Fit, it will be a step in the right direction. I got both Wii Fit Plus software as well as the EA Wii Active for Christmas and will be giving them a go. I've got the Wii set up in our bedroom and will get started with it tomorrow.

Best of luck to all of you with your resolutions!