Just so you know, I put an abrupt halt to the sloth today. Well, maybe not abrupt. I let myself sleep until 10 - but mostly because I stayed up until 1 am last night watching the America's Next Top Model marathon on Bravo. I am so addicted to this show that I ended up setting the Tivo to capture all episodes because I'll simply die if I don't find out what happens next. I've only got three years to catch up on.
So far today I have stripped and re-made both beds, done a ton of laundry, swiffered downstairs, cleaned the kitchen, organized my desk, paid bills, cleaned the cat box, and cleaned up my room. Oh, and edited and uploaded these pictures for your viewing pleasure:
The first thing we did New Year's Eve was open presents. Well, I guess that's a lie. After the wine was opened and flowing, we opened presents. Kristin brought all of us beautiful pashmina scarves that she purchased in Istanbul (!) and the cutest little handbags. 
Leslie got me a reed diffuser for my bedroom that smells awesome and these monkey stir sticks. I am pretty sure I left one at Pallet Day HQ. I hope Jose can find his way home. The other five - pictured above, from L to R: Rupert, Jenna, Blink, Portia, and Sam - really miss him.
It was also Brian's birthday so he opened presents, too. He got wine, a cool shirt, and a leaf blower/vac.
Here's a picture of us gals as we were leaving the house. I'm putting this up here because we look so good people need to see us. The second gal from the left is my friend Kristin who married a Scot and lives in Berlin. If you listen closely during the video which shows up later in this post, you can hear her husband William infer that she has a flat head in his beautiful Scottish accent.
I kept one of the menus from dinner. See now why I was so excited about it? 'Twas even better than imagined.
We were served inside the wine cellar at the restaurant which was really cool. It's a beautiful room that had been decorated for the holidays. We may or may not have come into possession of a couple of the little cork stars, under the permissive wink of our waiter Denny, of course. We may be thieves, but we're civilized.
Speaking of we . . .
Seated to my left was Kristin, The Gregger, and Tracie with Birthday Brian directly across from me. To my right? Leslie and William.
Also to my left was an oddly placed little storage room, the entry to which is probably four foot square. And as you can see, it is actually used - a couple times during dinner one chef or another would come through the room and get in there for supplies.
It was really weird and funny. So much so that it wasn't long before we were playing in it.
Quite simply, it was one of those perfect nights: the food was delicious, the service was impeccable, and the company was fabulous.
And, oh yeah, the wine was plentiful. That always adds an extra layer of shine to everything.
Before we knew it, midnight was upon us and there was much horn tooting, toasting, kissing, and general reveling:
When we got back to the house a dance party broke out:
We ended up with a dance party rule which required performing on the white rug:
Tracie got right down there and did the worm. She was really good at it. You can't see that in this picture. In this picture she looks more like she fell on her face, and I feel bad for that, but it's a nice lead-in to a picture of her subsequent tackling:
Look ma! I tackled a girl with no hands!
Here's a video of Kristin's performance, a headstand. Yes, you heard me. A headstand. She did a flawless headstand in a form-fitting little black dress. She is awesome and can do anything. I apologize that the video isn't turned the right way. I don't know how to change the direction so you're stuck with this. Besides, it's really fun to pretend she broke gravity in a little black dress.
And then, quick as a wink, and it truly was only one wink, Pallet Day had arrived! Leslie and I were the first ones up, about 8 am. That is, if you can call curling up in the fetal position on top of the Pallet materials "up." Not being one to break tradition, Leslie also prayed to the porcelain god. I'd be apprehensive about any year that failed to start this way.
The next person up was Tracie, clearly excited for the Mizzou game. This is only a small portion of the Mizzou gear that was available for wear at Pallet HQ. I'm happy to report that Mizzou won their bowl game and one of their players broke the Cotton Bowl rushing record. I think it might have been a very different party if Mizzou had not played well.
Before long real preparations were underway. The Pallet was constructed and shortly thereafter the first round of food for the day - Sister Schubert's Sausage Wrap Rolls and cinnamon rolls - hit it. Life after that was pretty predictable: Eat, drink, nap. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I need to stop the story here for a minute and publicly apologize to Whiskey Marie. In a recent comment she expressed an interest in the pajamas I wore to Pallet Day. The pink flannel pants and black top (see above middle) I chose are nothing short of b.o.r.i.n.g. compared to these. Had I known you cared, I'd have worn something much funnier. Like a gorilla costume. As a peace offering, here's a Scotsman in funny pants and slipper socks:
(BTW, WM, I have more to say about your pajamas and monkeys, but another time? KTHXBAI!)
Returning to Pallet Day, here's the list of things we ate.
We made this list early in the day because we kept forgetting what was in the pantry. As we prepared and ate something, it received a check mark. As we were winding down, I added the list of beverages consumed there on the lower right. Proudly I report that we ate everything on the list except the cheese log. (Keep in mind there were only seven of us.)
The Gregger abandoned The Pallet first, but he also made the mid-afternoon beer run so he earned our forgiveness. The rest of us were in position at Pallet HQ for 24 hours, unshowered and basking in our popularity. It was a good one.
