First let me say, "Happy New Year!"  Oddly enough, it doesn't seem right starting a new blog entry, the first one of 2008, without expressing those common words that leave our mouths and ring through our ears during this season.

After all our guests left, Matt and I had the pleasure of spending time together, just the two of us here in Austin.  We slept in, watched movies, took long walks with Molly and played basketball with her, and we even went out on a couple of dates.  It wouldn't be a complete break, however, especially since we were home, without some "honey-do" lists that I prepared for us to tackle in order to start the New Year as completely organized as possible.  There really isn't anything like the feeling of scratching off something from a list!  Hopefully Matt will agree that it was a well-balanced break. 

January/February 2008 "Cooking Light"

One leisurely thing I did was read through the January/February 2008 issue of Cooking Light.  It had an article about "Dinner Day", started by Jeffrey and Barbara Smith, a family in Pennsylvania a few years ago.  The Smiths, after watching the way 9/11 was an impetus to bring together Americans nation-wide as well as local neighbors within their community, wanted to do something to help continue the bond between neighbors that was incited by 9/11.  So they created "Invite Your Neighbor to Dinner Day", where for one day out of the year, people invite neighbors they do not normally have over for dinner (i.e. neighbors they've never spoken to or only waved at) to strengthen the community.  "Dinner Day" spread to neighboring communities and counties, and eventually, it became Pennsylvania's House Resolution No. 723, declaring the second Saturday of January as "Invite Your Neighbor to Dinner Day", with the logo, "Building Bridges, Not Fences".

This year, "Dinner Day" is on Saturday, January 12th.  I was stirred by the article, knowing that there are a number of neighbors I've briefly spoken to, but don't really have any interaction with.  I admit, sometimes I'd rather keep to myself, content with the neighbors I know who are already our friends.  There are other neighbors, who we know only a little bit, and we keep telling each other that we should "get together", "let's plan on doing something", but for one reason or another, it has never happened...and it's been more than a year!  So we certainly have a handful, if not more, neighbors to choose from who we could invite to "Dinner Day"!  After reading the article, I felt challenged to get to know our neighbors better, to reach out to those we don't know.  And I was also excited at the fun opportunity to have a new guest in our home, even more motivated that it may be something people participate in nation-wide on January 12th! 

So Matt and I chose to invite one of the neighbors that it took us over a year to actually follow through with having in our home.  His name is Steve, and he was actually our realtor and sold us our home.  He's a very kind man, with an adorable Golden Retriever named Dexter.  We've waved at him on the few occasions we see him drive by while we walk Molly.  Right before Christmas we stopped by his home to say, "hi", and Molly and Dexter ran around Steve's living room together playing while Molly tried to steal Dexter's bone.  And once again, we said, "We really need to get together and have you over for dinner."  So Steve will be our welcomed and honored guest on "Dinner Day"!  If you could invite a neighbor over for "Dinner Day", who would it be and why?