Good riddance, 2009.

Happy new year, everyone! What will 2010 bring The Churches? We shall certainly see, but let's hope the new year brings us a little more luck than 2009 did. Here's hoping for no more sick for me (for a least a little while??), happiness and safety for my family and friends, and, you know, maybe a job and some moolah. That's not too much to ask for, is it?

To ring in 2010, Brad and I spent what we realized is our FIRST new year's just the two of us (and fitting, I suppose, seeing as this marks our first decade together and our 10th NYE). We went to Godaiko for dinner and stuffed ourselves silly on rolls and saketinis, thoroughly amused by the odd bunch of folks that shared the bar with us (i.e., the woman who picked her California roll apart, discarded the seaweed, and ate the crab and rice with a fork). Then it was home for game night -- initially a game of Risk was planned, but who knew you need three players? Out came Simpson's Monopoly, and I spanked Brad's bootie in the bootie spanking of the decade. When Brad officially ran out of money and properties to mortgage, I had hundreds of dollars, owned nearly all the properties, and had a board full of monorail stops and stations. Just call me Donald Trump.

We stayed up late watching House Hunters, then woke up early (ok, late) and headed over to the new Nick's House of Pancakes, which was paaaacked. Horrendous service aside, we had a delicious breakfast... once it finally came.

What to get, what to get...... Brad decided on the ham and cheese omelet and I went with the pecan banana pancakes (a Nick's favorite). I just barely resisted the banana foster's pancakes and/or French toast.

Paaaaaancakes!!!!!

Yum. The omelet was nice and fluffy and we agreed it was better than a Coney omelet (but obviously no Roadhouse omelet). The pancakes were super yummy, with just the right amount of nutty crunch and sweet (but not too sweet). On a less busy day, of course, I can't wait to go back and try some of the other breakfast dishes (hipster hash? ha ha!) and even some of the lunch dishes.

In Church kitchen news, my lovely food processor has made it out of the box and found a new home. Isn't she lovely?

In knitting news, I took a few days off after the Christmas knitting rush, but then my hands started to get antsy, so I threw together a ski cap for Larry. I love its retro 70s ski look. If I hadn't of made it on the big side, I might have secretly kept it for myself -- I think it's my favorite hat yet.

And finally, with a gift card from my mom, I hit the yarn store and splurged on some glorious alpaca yarn to make myself a fuzzy wuzzy scarf. *sigh*