Roxy's Resolutions: Enjoy the Moments

Particularly around significant milestones, I tend to spend time planning for the future, or looking back on the past (both wonderful memories and mistakes I've made). Today, however, I woke up thinking that I'd like to start the New Year and new decade with a focus on enjoying each moment as it happens. Right now, London and Maddie are at such a perfect age... I don't want to waste a minute of the present dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.

So we're spending the day living in the moment... relaxing around the house, taking time to snuggle up by the perfect roaring fire. I can't promise that I won't have a plan to lose a few pounds, exercise more, eat better, etc., but for now we're going to take it as it comes.
Happy New Year 2010 to all of you, and may you enjoy the moments.

Blue Moon, White New Year's, Happy New Year 2010 to All

Rex, London, Maddie and I are relaxing by a roaring fire after a perfect New Year's Eve dinner at Ninety Acres, the new restaurant at Natirar in Peapack, New Jersey. It is snowing here in the Roxiticus Valley...not expected to create much accumulation, just pretty puffy snowflakes falling and hiding the blue moon.

Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve will be on in a few minutes, but we may wait until tomorrow to post our New Year's resolutions. Maddie would like to share one now: her first resolution is to stay up until midnight to watch the ball drop. She's been up since six in the morning, so it may also be the first resolution to slip through the cracks.

Roxy's Blogolutions: Better Content in 2009

I've been serious about my blogging here at Roxiticus Desperate Housewives for almost a year now, and I've also spent the year trying to learn from my fellow bloggers. I've "done my time" with EntreCard and BlogExplosion, driving traffic to my own blog while discovering some amazingly talented writers and some friends who make me smile day after day. In the New Year 2009, Rex and I are committed to working harder and being more productive in our investment banking business, and that will likely reduce my time spent in and around the blogosphere. I will therefore be focused on making the most of my time, which means spending less time on indiscriminate traffic driving techniques and more time visiting and commenting on my favorite blogs.

Something I noticed when competing for Hottest Mommy Blogger in the Bloggers Choice Awards is that famous bloggers like Dooce don't rely on traffic exchanges to drive visitors to their sites (Dooce is apparently so popular that she's shut off comments from visitors...what would I do without hearing from all of you??!!). Most of my favorite bloggers seem to spend more time writing great content than they do visiting other people's blogs. I've certainly noticed that when I write a great post about something meaningful to me, I'm much more likely to win in BlogExplosion's Battle of the Blogs. So that's where I'm headed with Roxiticus Desperate Housewives in the New Year 2009... trying to make things more interesting for my readers, and over on Roxy's Best Of... I'll be working hard to build local content on the best kid stuff (toddler activities, kiddie birthday party venues, sports teams and clinics, ballet, gymnastics, tennis, singing and acting lessons), restaurants, food and wine, art and culture, and local community events in New Jersey and to recruit new local bloggers to blog about their faves in a town near you.

I'm interested in hearing from my loyal readers about how you spend your time in the blogosphere... I've noticed some friends dropping out of EntreCard, but I think I'll just stay in and cut back on my "dropping" habit. I find that seeing my friends' EntreCards in my inbox reminds me to stop by and see what's new around the world. What are your Blogolutions for the New Year 2009?

Roxy's Resolutions: Fitness not Fatness in 2009

As I began to plan out my New Year's Resolutions for 2009, I had a grand scheme for fitness not fatness that involved reducing my weight from 145 pounds to 130 pounds over the course of 25 weeks... one pound per week for 5 weeks, then one pound every other week for 10 weeks. Unfortunately, a bit of overindulgence in Rex's good cooking, and all of the holiday cookies that London, Maddie and I baked caused me to tip the scales at 150 pounds on New Year's Eve. Behind the eight ball already!

Do you remember those old Special K commercials that urged you to try to "pinch an inch" of belly fat? Of course, the recommendation for those who had an inch to pinch was to eat only Special K and grapefruit until the inch went away. The 2008 equivalent was the Baked Tostitos Scoops and fresh hot salsa diet. Well, loyal readers, I was feelin' pretty good after my workout the other day, almost ready to try on my size six jeans, but I can still pinch two inches...ON BOTH SIDES!! AAAAAArrrrgh!

I guess my weight fluctuation in the midnight hour is just a reminder that I need to be flexible, so Roxy's Resolution #1 is now: lose 20 pounds over 30 weeks, one pound per week for the first ten weeks, then one pound every other week for another 20 weeks.

I'd like to invite my loyal Roxiticus Desperate Housewives to share their advice for weight loss. My current approach will combine diet (less beer, fewer desserts) and exercise (3x per week on the elliptical trainer or bike), all while listening to workout mixes on my iPod. My best musical inspiration has been hip hop... Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie," the Black Eyed Peas singin' "Let's Get It Started," Salt 'n' Pepa's "Shoop." Please let me know if you have any fave workout tunes that make you move it, move it...

Happy New Year 2009!

The countdown to the New Year 2009 begins. Here in the Roxiticus Valley, we have about 14 hours to finish making our resolutions, dress up in our finery, and pour the champagne. On the other side of the world, however, my blogosphere buddy Mariuca is all dressed up and out for dinner, with about an hour until her New Year begins. Same goes for the lovely, gracious and talented LadyJava, who is offering your choice of coffee or cocktails in LadyJava's Lounge, decorated for the celebration with balloons, streamers and party favors. By surfing the blogosphere, we can "watch the ball drop" every hour and celebrate all day and night. As the Black Eyed Peas might say, "Let's Get It Started!"

Even though there are so many fabulous restaurants to choose from for a New Year's Eve dinner in Morris County, NJ, as well as a kid-friendly celebration of First Night in Morristown, NJ, I found live Maine Lobsters on sale for $4.99/pound at Shop Rite in Chester, NJ, so our family is going to stay at home for our celebration this year. My loyal Roxiticus Desperate Housewives readers know that Rex is the master chef in our family, and he prepares a lobster as well as any restaurant. London and Maddie have been enjoying 300-piece jigsaw puzzles, we're working on a Time Capsule Project, and we may just start a marathon game of Scrabble or Monopoly to ring in the New Year.

If you've made any New Year's Resolutions, please share them with a comment here. I'm putting together a Blogosphere Buddies Resolution Support Group to help all of us stick together and stick to our resolutions for longer than we might have on our own.

Whatever your plans for the First Night and the New Year 2009, Rex, London, Maddie and I would like to share with you and your family our best wishes for a year of peace, joy, health and happiness.

Music Monday: Same Auld Lang Syne

Since I was a kid, I have always loved New Year's Eve... making resolutions and trying to keep them, staying up until midnight to watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV, the year-end pop music countdowns on the radio... I even had my first kiss with a boy named James (now a not so famous actor in Hollywood) on New Year's Eve when I was in sixth grade...so it is no surprise that I love songs about New Year's Eve, particularly "Same Auld Lang Syne" from Dan Fogelberg. Enjoy the video of a live performance and feel free to sing along with the lyrics below. Wishing you all a Happy New Year 2009... with best wishes for a year filled with joy, peace, health, love and happiness.

If, like me, you make a few New Year's Resolutions every year but have a hard time sticking to them past the first week of January, please join Roxy's Resolution Support Group by leaving a comment with your goals and objectives, wishes, hopes and dreams for the New Year 2009.



Met my old lover in the grocery store
The snow was falling Christmas Eve
I stole behind her in the frozen foods
And I touched her on the sleeve

She didn't recognize the face at first
But then her eyes flew open wide
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse
And we laughed until we cried.

We took her groceries to the checkout stand
The food was totalled up and bagged
We stood there lost in our embarrassment
As the conversation dragged.

We went to have ourselves a drink or two
But couldn't find an open bar
We bought a six-pack at the liquor store
And we drank it in her car.

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how.

She said she'd married her an architect
Who kept her warm and safe and dry
She would have liked to say she loved the man
But she didn't like to lie.

I said the years had been a friend to her
And that her eyes were still as blue
But in those eyes I wasnt sure if I saw
Doubt or gratitude.

She said she saw me in the record stores
And that I must be doing well
I said the audience was heavenly
But the traveling was hell.

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how.

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to time
Reliving in our eloquence
Another auld lang syne...

The beer was empty and our tongues were tired
And running out of things to say
She gave a kiss to me as I got out
And I watched her drive away.

Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned into rain

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted.

Roxy Raves: A Perfect Christmas Eve at Due Terre Enoteca in Bernardsville, New Jersey

The weather outside was frightful, but our Christmas Eve dinner at Due Terre Enoteca in Bernardsville, NJ, was delightful.

All day long, the icy rain poured down. When Rex went out in the morning to bring in some provisions from Shop Rite in Chester, NJ, I called his Blackberry to suggest that he pick up some ingredients for dinner and just stay home. Rex was hoping for a Christmas Eve miracle that would get us to the 4pm children's pageant at Hilltop Presbyterian Church in Mendham, NJ, and out for an early festive dinner afterwards. He had read a recent rave review in the Star Ledger of Due Mari in New Brunswick, so he asked me to call for reservations at their sister restaurant... Due Terre Enoteca in Bernardsville, NJ.

When I spoke with Matthew Rotella, the restaurant manager, in the early afternoon, it was clear that Due Terre was pretty well booked for the evening, but he agreed to email the Christmas Eve prix fixe menu and to squeeze us in at 5:30pm, right after church.

Despite the weather, Rex did his best to cheer us into our holiday finery and off to Hilltop Church in time for the Christmas Eve pageant. As soon as the children began to sing "Jesus, Light of the World," my spirits lifted and the meaning of Christmas came back to me once more. "Long after the dawn of creation, God promised another light. This light would shine through the eyes of a child. This light would bring hope and love to a world darkened by sin." We sang along to the traditional Christmas carols: "Silent Night," "Angels We Have Heard on High," "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful," "We Three Kings of Orient Are," "Joy to the World" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." I stopped worrying about whether London would be disappointed if Santa didn't deliver a Teeny Puppini (he didn't, she wasn't), and let myself believe and remember. We all joined in for "Go Tell It On the Mountain" and headed out into the night holding the light of the world in our hearts.

Continue reading Christmas Eve at Due Terre Enoteca

Fun Things To Do, with or without Kids, Over the Holiday Break

This morning Maddie happily pointed out that even though Christmas is past, we still have nine days left in our holiday break. While I've been impressed with some of the local activities my friends have come up with to fill the days (one family visited Liberty Science Center, and Maddie was invited out for a movie date this afternoon), I'm really looking for a project that we can do as a family without necessarily leaving the house. Here are three things we're likely to try in the coming week:

• Melissa over on Your Fun Family shared a neat Time Capsule project that would make a great annual New Year's tradition for our family: Get your kids together and talk about the past year. Have them discuss what they will remember the most. Then they can decide what to add to the time capsule. I like the idea of having the kids write a kind of diary entry about the year. Then they can write their name on an envelope and seal it shut. When everything is in the time capsule you can decorate it and label it with the date. Put it away in a safe place until you are ready to open it. Your family can then decide how long to wait to open them. If you make a new one each year, you will also have one to open every year after the chosen amount of years has passed. When I was a kid, I participated in a town-wide bicentennial (1976) time capsule project where they waited 20 years to open the capsules. Even though my parents still lived in town in 1996, I never heard about a grand opening of the time capsules, so I suspect 20 years is way too long to wait... even if our family chose five years, London would be almost 13 and Maddie would be almost 12 by the time we opened them. Maybe three years? What do you think?
• My blogosphere buddy Shelly, a.k.a. The Mom With Brownies, has made a list of 100 things she wants to do in her life before she dies. I think it's incredibly ambitious just to list them all out, never mind getting after them... but I may just be inspired to start my list, and if I do you'll find it here.
• Third on my agenda is to make our family's New Year's Resolutions. We do it every year, and some years we remain more committed to our goals than others. This year, I'd like to start up a Blogosphere Buddies Resolution Support Group here at Roxiticus Desperate Housewives, where we all share our goals and objectives for the New Year, and help each other to stick to 'em. Whaddya think?

New Year's Eve Celebrations 2008-2009: Morris County NJ Continues the First Night Tradition

Twenty years ago, during my first holiday season after graduating from college, I went up to Boston to visit one of my best high school girlfriends, Grey Hound, and learned about Boston's tradition for celebrating New Year's Eve. Even though it is technically the last night of the old year, Bostonians call their celebration "First Night." First Night is an outdoor artistic and cultural celebration on New Year's Eve, taking place from afternoon until midnight. The event celebrates a community's local culture, often featuring music, dance, comedy, art, and always has plenty of food, fireworks, and ice sculptures. Most entertainment is freely available outside, but admission to indoor events requires the simple purchase of a First Night button, whose profits support the celebration as a whole. First Night celebrations are generally alcohol free. The First Night tradition was started in Boston in 1976 by a small group of artists, and its popularity quickly made it an annual event. Soon other surrounding communities started their own First Night celebrations. In 1993, First Night International (click here to find the First Night celebration closest to you) became a non-profit organization dedicated to helping other cities set up their own celebrations. It has since spread to cities all over the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and New Zealand.

This year marks our family's sixth New Year's Eve celebration in New Jersey, and Rex and I have always taken the girls out for an early dinner -- Opah Grill in Peapack-Gladstone, Pierre's in Harding Township, Plucky's Tavern at the Pluckemin Inn in Pluckemin -- and end up back at home, playing board games, making popcorn, and watching the ball drop in Times Square on TV. For the first time, London and Maddie seem to be about the right age for us to consider the First Night Morris County event on the Green in Morristown, New Jersey. I'm going to outline some of the kid-friendly events and performers here as we make our plans, and I would love to hear from anyone who has attended Morristown's First Night celebration in past years.

Continue reading (Kid Friendly Events and Performers at First Night Morris County NJ 2008-2009)