New Years Eve 2011

I was happy not to have to work New Years Eve this year.  I really wanted to cook a turkey.  I never get the leftovers after attending Thanksgiving, and I always want to make turkey soup with the carcass.  I watch for turkey's to drop to less than a dollar per pound after Thanksgiving, buy one and stick it in the freezer. 

Cole hates the smell of turkey cooking (yes, he's strange) so I cooked the turkey in my roaster oven in the garage.  I was worried that too much heat would escape, so I covered it over with foil before putting the lid on. 

From December 2011

It cooked perfectly except that the skin on the breast didn't get browned.  Next time I'll wait until an hour or so in before covering with foil. 

Yum!

From December 2011

Our family

From December 2011

(I've been having a little trouble with my camera over the holiday...I finally figured out how I had altered the settings, but this picture was the best of what I had of our dinner...)

We let the cats have some turkey, which they LOVED!

From December 2011

It's our tradition to hang out at home as a family, play games, eat lots of junk food, and light fireworks at midnight. 

The boys were dying to play the Jenga game Grandma and Grandpa gave us for Christmas...

From January 2012

The boys delighted in making the tower as unstable as possible.  Talia, not so much...She put the last piece on before it fell...

From January 2012

and was absolutely devastated. 

From January 2012

We started a game of Life...and Talia got all dolled up...

From January 2012

And then my parents surprised us by dropping by with my niece and nephew.  They had early plans, but decided to drop by on their way home.  We were so glad they did!!!

The boys (Kyle, Parker, and Alec) were playing the playstation...

From January 2012

and convinced Papa to play with them!

From January 2012

Gracie and Talia played with the princesses...

From January 2012

My parents stayed for about an hour.  After that, the boys decided they wanted to play the Wii, and I didn't know if Talia was going to manage to stay awake until Midnight, but she made it...

Our Fireworks..

From January 2012

Getting ready...

From January 2012

The artillery...

From January 2012

From January 2012

The fountain

From January 2012

Happy New Year!  It's going to be a great one!

Is It...

Really 2009 already? December just seemed to disappear before my eyes....
I was fortunate to have a friend pick up New Year's Eve for me(thanks Sherri!), so I didn't have to work. We spent the evening hanging out as a family...Cole cooked delicious steaks, we had a bunch of junk food...
We spent the first portion of our evening (the Talia's still awake portion) playing Guitar Hero...

I actually got compliments from Kyle, as my skills have improved...
After we put Talia to bed, we stuck the new "Indiana Jones" movie in, and broke out the board games. Alec took us in "Sorry", and then Kyle and I kicked butt in Mille Bornes. At the stroke of 12, we watched the ball drop on TV, Cole and I shared a lovely kiss, and we went out to light a few fireworks...



Then off to bed we went.

On the 1st, we laid around all morning, and at 3 headed over to my in-laws for the annual New Years Day dinner. I made my Artichoke dip (which my husband says is to die for...it is pretty dang good!), and we had a yummy dinner. I never did get around to taking pics though....

I usually take some time to sit and write in my journal on January 1st...I like to catch up on whatever I haven't journaled on, and I like to write in detail my goals and aspirations for the coming year. I didn't do that yesterday however...but I do have my reasons. I've kept a pretty good "blog journal" this year, so I don't feel like I need to catch up my journal as I usually do. And then, I bought myself this really cool guided journal...to help me keep my goals in focus and up front. It hasn't arrived yet...so I'm ruminating on my goals mentally, and plan to put pen to paper as soon as my new journal arrives.

I'm still having a really hard time believing that Monday is back to "Business as usual"...School, homework, etc. I do have lofty plans for crafting during my 3 day off stretch next week though....

Happy New Year to all!!!