The budget I was working on is complete, and soup I made on my lunch break is cooling in the kitchen. Phew! I am looking forward to the weekend.

I feel like I’ve been editing and formatting this Excel budget spreadsheet since the beginning of time.

The dining room is looking better now, too. I can’t believe we didn’t put anything up on that wall for 7 years.

I posted some photos I took in my son’s room. I hope he likes flowers. (He’s a baby.)

I am lazily cooking salsa chicken thighs for either lunch or dinner.

My wife and I took our 5 year old daughter to “Disney on Ice” this afternoon. She loved it. It was worth the trek out into the cold.

So far the snowfall hasn’t been so bad—only a few inches so far. It is windy, though, and very cold. My daughter, home on a snow day, is watching “Frozen”, which is apt. I am turning my attention to hot tea and (less hot) database programming.

We are bracing for a blizzard tonight, which is expected to snow us in all day tomorrow. School is canceled already. (Work isn’t.) I feel like it is a metaphor for what’s going on in my life right now. (Photo is historical.)

It looks like I will be doing some C# coding for work this month. That stuff is more interesting than the database stuff I do, and far more rewarding than the VBA stuff I have to do sometimes. I wish I could use Swift instead, though.

It must be January 2, because I just created a literal “Laundry List” in Reminders.

It’s back to work for me today, and I a digging out of my email inbox. Sometime later I will add a new “2018” folder to my “file system for life”, the filing system I wrote about in Plaintext Productivity several years ago. It feels good, each year, to marvel at how many project folders I created last year, leave them behind, and to prepare a clean space for new work.

I cooked a New Years Day feast for my family today. I ate so much I feel food drunk right now. That’s probably not the wisest way to kick off a healthy new year.

Reading people’s New Years Day posts has been both electrifying and chilling. 2017 was a tough year for everyone’s mental health. It seems that a lot of people plan to limit Twitter and Facebook and the ridiculous daily news cycle this year. Me too.

We are at my neighbors' house for a simulated 7:30 PM ball drop. Fun NYE party!

My daughter’s cookie decorating skills are advancing! I’m so proud of her. 😀🍪

It was a really close game!

The 2017 news cycle has worn me out. I am looking for something purely escapist to read. I’m considering “Ready Player One” and “The Last Unicorn”.

I am vacillating between being lazy and productive today. It is a vacation day, so I shouldn’t be too hard on myself.

After an eventful trip to see family, we are back at home. Today is a rebuilding day: unpacking, grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, dishes, etc.

Merry Christmas everyone!

We are heading off to see family for Christmas today.

I made banana bread, too.

I baked Snickerdoodles for the family today. They are really, really good!

I made a batch of Christmas cookies tonight with my daughter. Such fun! She pressed chocolate chips on top of sugar cookies that we rolled out together and cut—about 100 chips per cookie, I think.

A long lunch with the family was a great way to complete my work week.