And We're Off!

Happy New Year, everyone! We've been very busy doing absolutely nothing since Christmas... wearing pajamas all day, baking brownies, and watching bowl games and Little Bear. Critical stuff. Our first ever staycation has been a total success.

We stayed up really late last night... maybe 10ish? We did wake up early, though... 6 o'clock. And that, my friends, is midnight in the US Eastern time zone. So we were right there with you. =) What did we do to celebrate? Danced around our living room with hats and noise makers until I collapsed in a heap on the couch. This morning I woke bright and early determined to make my first New Years meal. I followed my mother's menu and baked a glazed ham, slow cooked black eyed peas, sauteed cabbage and baked some cornbread. Claudia also repeated her tradition of wearing her cabbage hat.

Bop ate everything and actually liked it. It's a pretty miserable struggle to get her to eat what I cook. A struggle that usually results in me heating up a hot dog and rice and slicing up a tomato. It's her go-to meal. But not today! She actually ate her ham, peas and cornbread.

I think you're supposed to eat the peas for your health and the cabbage for your wealth, but I recently read that this traditional Southern new years meal is to remember the struggles of the South after losing the Civil War. It goes that after the war, the Northern troops raided Southern homes, leaving nothing but undesirable items (like pork fat backs, cabbage and black eyed peas). The stalwart Southerners did the best they could with these foods and it became a Southern tradition to eat these foods on New Years to commemorate their struggles.

In other news, I turned thirty something last week. If there was a theme for the day, it would have been "Go back to bed. Today has been cancelled." Our poor Bop had a nasty 24 hour bug that kept us glued to the couch for the day. She never gets sick, so it was pretty rough on her.

My loving husband gave me a do-over birthday a few days after Christmas, securing dinner reservations, opera tickets and a babysitter for a night out. It was our first time to go to the Budapest opera house and it was absolutely stunning. We mostly went just to see the beautiful theater. The opera was nice, but it is what it is... 3 hours of some folks singing in a language we don't speak. Not the most thrilling thing.

Russell assured me it was the first and last opera we'd be attending here. He's suffered through about four operas total with me. I suspect its the last opera he'll be attending anywhere. Thanks for putting in your time, honey. =)

It was a very nice birthday do-over.

Happy New Year everyone!

I wish you health, prosperity and purpose in this new and exciting year.