WELCOME 2008!

Greetings faithful blogger followers! Happy New Year to each of you. I couldn't be happier to be welcoming in the new year and out with the old! 2008 is filled with eight's and it's also Amy's lucky number. 8, ate, eight; whoo hoo! 8 trips for 2008 readers; yes...as of today 1/1/2008 there are 8 trips in store for us through the 8th month of the year; August. Geesh; should I buy a lottery ticket or something?!! For those of you who answered the poll with the answer of 13 trips for the year; you're probably dead on. Since we're only confirmed up through August; it appears as if we may just complete that magical 13 trips.

The last entry posted was from November. To sum up the past few weeks; we celebrated Thanksgiving with my sister Tracie, brother-in-law Jim, nephew Jordan and neice Gillian in California. Following Thanksgiving, Dave and I returned to Texas to have the entire month of December at home! We had tamales on Christmas eve at his parent's house and we had a turkey dinner at our house on Christmas Day. For those of you non-Texans; let me tell you more about tamales. A tamale is masa spread onto a corn husk. Anyone remember President Ford back in the day trying to eat his tamale with the husk still intact? Okay; if you don't word to the wise. REMOVE the husk before eating! Masa is then mixed with meat; chicken or pork and spices. They are wrapped and then cooked and served up steaming! Tamales derived from the Native Americans. In the US, tamales are made and served during the holiday season. Dave's sister Maria and his Mom Pat makes them by the dozen and it's no easy undertaking. So, in honor of Dave's Hispanic background, we ate many, many tamales on Christmas eve. YUM!

Speaking of tamales; the chicken tamales from Pappasito's restaurant in San Antonio are PHENOMENAL! http://www.pappasitos.com Please indulge me for a moment to get to where this is going. One of the things I did this fall was to help a girlfriend out for the holidays. My girlfriends Caroline and Terasa are co-owners of Bath Junkie http://www.bathjunkie.com Caroline called me in October and asked if I would be interested in helping them out and work part time for the holidays. Of course I said yes and that ironically, December was the one month where we were not traveling and I could help. Back to Pappasitos. Caroline hosted a Bath Junkie Christmas party in her home and had the meal catered by Pappasitos. Thus the admiration of their chicken tamales. If you are ever in San Antonio and want to satisfy your craving of deliciousness; try a Pappasitos chicken tamale (no endorsement payoff has occured!)

Dave and I depart on 1/6 for Aruba. 80 degree temps year long. Following this "8" trend again? We will report back with photos and text to fill you in. Until then; may you each embrace this new year with health, happiness and prosperity. Pin It Now!