Made it through the duck pate and butternut squash soup. Husband emerges to prep his share and eat, then disappears back into the sports watching room.
Now I’m going to work out the timing for the rib roast and Yorkshire pudding. Apparently serving time is not an issue, unless it’s during an important drive or something…
H and I are still under the weather, so it’s going to be an early bedtime for us. Tomorrow we’re babysitting GD and will need every ounce of energy.
We did have a celebratory supper this evening; I made shrimp and sausage jambalaya. H has been asking for it and was delighted when I said I’d make it this afternoon. We had some peeled and deveined Gulf shrimp in the freezer, and I used a frozen seasoning mix of diced onion, celery and red pepper, so this was the easy version. Despite the shortcuts, I was ready for a nap afterwards but it was worth the effort.
Tomorrow we’ll treat GD to some lactose-free ice cream with chocolate sauce.
Here’s hoping for a healthier new year for everyone, and relief from the stresses of the past few years.
Dog went to the dog park today. He’s not going to make it to midnight. In fact, he didn’t make it to 7 o’clock.
I won’t make it either.
Son just walked over to the Space Needle to check it out; he’ll go back to his apartment for midnight.
Tomorrow for New Year’s we have pork and sauerkraut already in the slow cooker and will have black eyed peas as a side. This combines Pennsylvania and Southern traditions.
I love pork and sauerkraut. If H weren’t here I’d skip out on the black eyed peas, but since he is I’ll eat some.
I didn’t grow up with either.
We are having pork and sauerkraut today too. H will throw some pork kielbasa in as well. Will watch the Steelers-Ravens game tonight. Let’s Go Steelers!
Happy New Year!
We had our first post covid small gathering at our house last night. I made a lot of apps (too many) and desserts. We had wild mushroom on polenta rounds, smoked salmon flatbread, fig/onion/goat cheese flatbread, roast beef sliders, shrimp salad sliders, charcuterie and cheese, veggie tray, and a hot crab dip. We have a lot of left overs!
Today we are making an airport run for a family member and focusing in getting our new basement set up 
Years ago I started doing a 6 course dinner on New Year Day. It was a way to start teaching the children multi course dining with silver, china and crystal. As little ones they did not have them and they could get up and play any time. As they got older they graduated into more courses and the china and crystal. The main meal is pork and sauerkraut for my husband’s traditions.
I plan to get the rest of the Christmas decorations packed up into new Sterilight bins so D and SIL can help me get them into the “cage” in the condo garage. We are staying at my MILs place (she’s in AL) and I’ve been surrounded by 40 year old cardboard boxes since we arrived. I’m tired of living in what feels like a garage sale !
When they get here I will set out some apps and SIL will made some fancy nonalcoholic cocktails. D is pregnant and the rest of us have kind of had enough for now. For dinner we will have hoppin’ John, collards, pork tenderloin and apple tarts.
DH’S family is PA Dutch; my mom and her family are from the south and my dad’s Slovak (I was raised traditional Slovak with food since my mom hates to cook). We’re combining traditions this year; I’m making pork & sauerkraut, kolache, kielbasa, collard greens, blackeyed peas w/turnip greens and cornbread. After last year, we’re not taking any chances; we’re covering all the bases 
God love our local farmers; I only had to wash my greens twice until the water was clear, IYKYK
My family of origin is also PA Dutch/Amish, but I grew up in the south, so we never followed any of the PA Dutch traditions for New Year’s Day. Instead we always had ham, collard greens, black-eyed peas and cornbread–this is the tradition I still follow here in Southern California where I’ve lived for the last 40 years.
This is EXACTLY what we are having today!
I have cooked so much the last two weeks I didn’t give a thought to specials for today! Just me and H here and the leftover chicken enchiladas from a couple days ago sounds wonderful! But I could really enjoy some sauerkraut if anyone wants to leave a care package on my porch….
Before kids, we had NYE parties at our house. After we had kids, we enjoyed letting them stay up late & celebrating with sparkling cider & poppers; when they got a bit older, H would set off some fireworks in the street in front of our house. When the kids were grown up, we started a tradition of doing jigsaw puzzles on NYE. We started & finished a 1,000 piece puzzle yesterday. We also made pizza & watched the football games. I ended up sneezing like crazy before bed, and it progressed to a full blown cold overnight (Covid test done just in case - negative). So I’m starting the new year off by lazing around … not feeling guilty about it at all!
Great photo! Our local station that did the show at the Needle really botched it. All we saw was a giant ball of smoke with the Needle somewhere in the middle of it… apparently, the view was not so smoky in person! And the much hyped drone show started a few minutes late and was totally out of sync with the rest of the scene! 
Maybe by the next year’s NYE they will be able to perfect the drone thing.
Son pointed his laptop out his window while we video chatted on my desktop, and I pulled up the local coverage on my iPad so we watched live and tv coverage together. Not only were the drones delayed, but tv coverage was about 20 seconds behind live. Son said it looked great live; we had some trouble seeing through his computer camera due to smoke. But he gave us heads up on what was coming next with the drones.
I will say the show overall was great, timing notwithstanding, and it was great to ring in the new year together.
Ugh, @kelsmom! Take care of yourself! I know so many people (4 in real life!) recently diagnosed with Influenza A.
We had the wine (H, an OR chard) and cocktail (me, Tuxedo #2) and tv (White Lotus & Slow Horses), but that’s all we did according to the plan.
I have to agree with @BunsenBurner about the Seattle fireworks/drone light show on tv. H looked at me when the drones lights had a countdown 3 minutes after midnight, with a huh? What? Too much smoke and due to the delayed start the lights were totally out of sync.
A very low-key day today. H is baking bread, a FB game on TV, and we’ll watch the hockey game while enjoying what we didn’t eat last night. I’ll have to see if I can come up with a hockey-appropriate cocktail.
No plans today other than going over to visit with my mom and brother and SIL who are caring for her (post-knee surgery) at her house in advance of my hip surgery Tuesday. DH stayed home to “do some work.” When I returned, I found that the “work” was preparing my favorite lamb dinner in advance of my pre-op fasting tomorrow. I’m really touched and will enjoy every bite of this lovely meal.
Happy New Years, all! Late to this thread, but our NYE activity was to stay in (including both daughters) and have our closest friends (a couple) come over and stay overnight. We sat around and snacked and cooked and drank and made a number of pizzas over the course of the evening. Played some board games, struggled to stay awake to watch the ball drop, had a champagne toast and in bed by 12:15.
We all slept in, then had a big breakfast and took a walk at the beach. It was a good start to 2023.
