Auld Lang Syne

I have a fascination with time. I find myself feeling incredibly bound by it, yet also being fully aware of just how arbitrary it is. But it helps us to mark significant events in our lives and to occasionally pause to remember them. So, in true form to New Year's Eve tradition, we'd both like to present you with our year in review.

Accomplishments (in no particular order)

• We made our own cheese for the first time. And it's pretty good!
• Our furry friend Colton is no longer obese. (We didn't talk about that here, but he was. Quite.)
• Aaron tried his hand at charcuterie and makes the best burger patties ever. Seriously.
• Our repertoire of Italian food expanded: homemade pizza and pasta wreaked havoc on our waistlines.
• Gardening in our victory garden.
• Chrissie started taking graduate non-matriculated classes.
• We started this blog!
• The dogs lamented that we saved all our chicken bones to make stock for the first time.
• Green tomatoes became our friends.
• Chrissie was able to introduce Aaron to her Parisian grandmother before she passed away.
• Aaron returned to his childhood love of gaming.
• We ran a 5k together.
• 1.5 pounds of carrots were harvested from our garden. (To really understand why this is a major accomplishment, see this and this).
• We learned a little about being locavores.
• Our niece and nephews are completely indoctrinated into Harry Potter fandom.

Trials

• Our poor, fireblighted Charlie Brown tree
• We faced the realities of life and death. We'll miss you grandmama.
• Brine. Enough said.
• We discovered that locavorianism is hard.
• Helo's attempts at yard work. (More on that to come.)
• We tried to grow shallots. We probably should have just stuck with garlic.
• Helo taught us some of the joys of homeownership with his beautiful carvings on the windowsills.
• We never had enough time.

Goals for 2012

• Attempt homemade vinegar.
• Post more frequently.
• Make sauerkraut from scratch.
• Learn French.
• Thin the carrots!
• Discover more new recipes to fold into our regular repertoire.
• Stay involved in music.

There's probably a lot more that we could put in any of those given categories, but those are the highlights. We wish all of you out there the best possible year in 2012, and please feel free to share your thoughts with us anytime!