New Year's Eve For Us...

Growing up, I always stayed up to see the new year come in. It was such a big deal to watch (and hear!) my brother rattle the neighborhood with his shotgun when the clock stuck midnight. At the time, my parents' house was not zoned inside the city limits. Things have changed since then, and we'd probably get hauled off to jail if we did that at their house now.

Then there came the highschool years where I thought life just wouldn't go on if I wasn't at the happening party on new year's eve. Those parties included crazy kids, somebody's house whose parents were off at their own party, loud music, maybe some fireworks, and depending on if the party was inside or outside of the city limits...my brother's shotgun.

I chuckle a little these days when people ask us what our new year's eve plans are. Um, does nothing count? Not nothing as in we are in bed by 10 o'clock...but nothing as in we don't do parties or anything involving leaving our kids with a babysitter. We like to be at home with the girls. They get a kick out of watching the ball in New York drop...Macy realized this year that it wasn't OUR new year's when the ball dropped. The countdown continues for us for another hour. And by george she kept us informed during that hour...minute by minute by minute...

I bought some cans of black-eyed peas at the grocery store a couple of days ago...because everyone (or at least every Southerner) knows that if you want to have good fortune in a year, you MUST eat black-eyed peas on January 1st. I decided today though that I wanted to try to make "real" black-eyed peas...you know, the dried kind. We made a quick trip to the store this evening to get some dried peas and whatever else I might need to cook them with. Keep in mind, I have never attempted this before....and I am a recipe girl. I also know, though, that "real" cooking doesn't call for recipes...so I found me a very nice fellow and a sweet lady in the store to pester about how I need to cook these peas. I am sure I was the topic of conversation at somebody's dinner table tonight. I can just hear it..."Ya'll. I ran into this little gal in the store tonight...never cooked black-eyed peas before in her life." The fellow led me over to these little bags of stuff called "hog jawl" and said that is what I needed to cook with the peas. Dried peas. Check. Hog jawl. Check. I am fully prepared (at least I think I am) to make a big pot of black-eyed peas for tomorrow. Maybe they'll be edible, maybe they won't. We'll just have to see about that.

Jason and Macy stayed in the car while Lucy and I ran into the store. As we were about to check out, sweet little Lucy said, "Mama, let's make Daddy that pie that he asks you for all the time and you never make it."

She would be talking about a cream cheese pie.

"Oh sister, let's do that." So along with our dried peas and hog jawl, we got the ingredients for the pie. When Jason and I first got married, this was the only thing I could fix for dessert. It is virtually impossible to burn them...as they do not have to be baked...although it would have come as NO surprise if the mixer I used caught on fire and burned the batter...I had THAT sort of luck in the kitchen during our first few years of marriage. Remind me to tell you about the time where my oven door fell off...literally...before the repair man came, I would have to stand there and HOLD it on if I needed to use the oven. Because they required no baking, we had cream cheese pies quite frequently. And Jason still likes them, if that tells you anything.
Lucy and I made the pie tonight. She really enjoys helping in the kitchen. And she REALLY enjoys taste testing...

So our new year's eve this year consisted of a trip to the grocery store, me learning how to make real black-eyed peas, and making a pie. The 4 of us were all together just hanging out...perfect night to me *Ü*

*I posted the pie recipe almost a year ago here.*

**And just for the record, my brother no longer shoots his shotgun at midnight on new year's anymore. He's now a daddy and spends new year's eve at home with his wife and 2 boys...and if I know my brother...asleep long before the clock strikes midnight.**

Hope you all have a happy new year!!

Thursday

Poor Macy had a little "episode" in the night last night. We thought it was a stomach bug, so she slept with towels spread around her and a trashcan by her side. When she got up this morning feeling perfectly fine, we decided it must have been due to my baking frenzy yesterday...I think the girl ate 24 of my chocolate chip cookies all by herself.

Lucy went to the library this morning with my Dad and my nephews and my sister. Mother Goose doesn't take the holiday off...ha! Macy and I met them afterwards for lunch, and the girls went home with my parents for a little while this afternoon, leaving me all by myself. For really no particular reason, I do not do well all by myself. I like to be with my girls. You'd think I would get a lot done when I am alone and enjoy a little break, but really in truly, I walk around in circles and get nothing accomplished. Weird, I know.

So what did I do this afternoon? Well, that's a good question. Would you believe me if I said I sat and watched my husband and my father-in-law chop wood? Probably not, but that is EXACTLY what I did. As I was leaving Jason's parents' house after stopping by to check on the horse, he and his Dad drove up with a truckload of firewood. Chopping wood (i.e. watching my husband's awesome arm muscles operate an ax) sparks interesting conversation. It was fun!

I picked up the girls after a few hours, stopped again to take care of the horse, then headed home. We ate supper (yummy new crockpot roast recipe...I'll have to share), and had horse cookies for dessert.
Our shaving cream/glue snowmen that we made last night were dry, so we broke out some craft supplies and got busy embellishing them.

This craft is so simple...equal parts shaving cream and glue...stir it up, then fingerpaint with it. You could use a brush if you wanted, but the girls really had fun getting their hands in it.

Embellishing the snowmen caused an all out craft fest...

We made felt flower hair clips...

Hairbows for American Girl dolls...

Flower clips out of ribbon and fabric scraps...

And tiny snowmen...

After crafting for about two hours, they got a little crazy on the tricycle...

It's been a fun Thursday!

Christmas Aftermath

We have had a wonderful few days since Christmas. Jason was off on Monday, so we had a good day around the house with him. We have enjoyed simple days of doing not much of anything...those are the kind of days that we love. Like I have said before, my girls are so content with staying at home and just playing. While there is a time for getting out and doing things of course, our family truly enjoys being at home and just "being" rather than constantly "doing."

We have been staying up way too late...

And sleeping way too late... Breakfast usually comes around the time when most are getting ready for lunch (okay, maybe not THAT late...but you get the point)...
Cinnamon toast and hot chocolate or coffee (I do let my children drink coffee sometimes!) for breakfast every morning...yum! The girls have been enjoying all the things they got for Christmas.
This is a draw-your-own puzzle that Lucy got... And Macy has done a lot of coloring in her stainglass horse coloring book... I have become obsessed with a few things lately, and you know I have to share them!

Such as poking cloves in oranges (in a pattern, of course). They smell so good! Jason thought this one looked like a person's head, so he dressed it up in my ruffly coffee coozy... Another new obsession...roasted sweet potatoes wedges. I had never had these before...but oh my goodness, I am now smitten with them. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law were talking about these at Christmas, and I had to try them. I just cut up some sweet potatoes into wedges, drizzled them with olive oil, put sea salt and fresh ground pepper on them, and roasted them for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

They are so yummy! I love, love, love the mixture of these two juices... I prefer a 3/4 cup white grape juice to 1/4 cup cranberry raspberry juice ratio, but you can defintely alter it to your taste. Next best thing to diet sierra mist with cranberry (and you can ALWAYS find white grape juice and cranberry juice!). And baking. Need I mention that I have a slight obsession with baking? Today was chocolate chip cookies. These turned out so chewy like soft batch cookies...they are delicious! And along the lines of baking...icing cookies. You would think I would enjoy some time off from being the Cookie Mama...but actually, I miss it so much! I decided to make the kids some snowman cookies using a cookie cutter kit I got last Christmas. And horse cookies with the cookie cutter I got in my stocking this year. The highlight of our days has been when we go feed Prince. The girls get so excited...and I do too! It is so much fun to go out to the pasture and see him...it's so cool when we drive up and he trots over to the edge of the fence to see us...like he's been waiting all day for us.

We took him sugar cubes and yellow apples today for a treat. He seems to prefer yellow apples over red ones, for whatever reason. And during my baking frenzy today, I googled "homemade horse treats" and came up with a recipe with ingredients that I had on hand. Don't these look yummy?? I thought they did too *Ü*

However, Prince wasn't too fond of them. This was the result of me feeding him one of the cookies... One tiny bite, and the cookie was spit on the ground. He didn't seem to enjoy them as much as I had hoped. I even mixed a broken up cookie in with his sweet feed. He licked that bucket clean. All except for the cookies, that is... So I'll google another recipe tomorrow. I'm not giving up yet.

Can you see the excitement in this little girl's eyes when she goes to see the horse?? I have decided that having this horse is going to work in our best interest as parents. The girls get sassy, we threaten them..."if you don't cut out the sass, you won't get to go see the horse today." How quickly they snap out of their sassy mood! Granted, there will be days when two sassy little girls get to go see their horse, I am sure. After all, he IS ours to take care of...every day. I have not been more excited about caring for something everyday as I was when my babies were born. Prince is such a blessing to our family!

I love this picture of "twice my size" and "mini me" (although some think Macy is beginning to look like me)... We have also become quite fond of this dog that lives near Jason's parents' house (where Prince stays)...he always comes running when we drive up... I found this cool project on pinterest that we worked on tonight. You take equal parts of shaving cream and glue and use it as paint. We left ours white and made snowmen... We'll let them dry overnight, and embellish them tomorrow. Such a fun craft! Hope you are all having a nice after-Christmas week!

Christmas Eve

We woke up Christmas Eve morning to my vehicle on the front porch...VERY close to having been driven right through the front doors. Very perplexing...

Until upon further investigation...we discovered that Susan and Dottie were the culprits.

Shew!

They had a backseat full of stuffed animals and dolls in the car with them...late night joyride, I guess!
Jason always makes me laugh. The girls asked for coffee...so coffee they got...

In teeny-tiny American Girl doll mugs. Ha!

Mid-morning, we headed to my parents' to spend the day celebrating Christmas with my side of the family.

The girls brought Susan and Dottie along to spend the day with us, as they would be returning to the North Pole with Santa that night.

Boy, are we going to miss these two little elves!

The girls with their stockings at my Mom's...

That is a cupcake hat on top of Lucy's stocking...and she sure looks adorable wearing it!

The girls with Bippy...

My nephew, Carson...

And my nephew Cade, who walked around all day snapping pictures on his play cell phone...

Lucy just hanging out...

Macy was loving the horse gifts she received!

Cade told me a month or so ago that he wanted me to give him a sock monkey for Christmas. So by all means, I found him a sock monkey. A dancing sock monkey at that...it's the cutest thing!

Lucy got the cutest book written by a Mississippi writer...

And she got an owl alarm that hoots. She loves this alarm clock! She toted it around with her for the rest of the day!

More horse stuff for Macy...

The sweetest gifts were these vintage necklaces...all the girls got one. They were created by using my Nana's jewelry. These necklaces are so special. The clasp on all the necklaces is a bird...my Nana loved her birds. This was our first Christmas without her, but it seemed as if she was there with us in spirit.

We tried to get a picture of all the girls with our necklaces, but the ones taken with my camera didn't turn out so great. So just a couple of snaps of me and the girls...

After opening gifts, it was time for dessert. Looks like somebody found his way to some red velvet cake...

Snowman donut holes made by the kids...

Then it was time to make little gingerbread houses!

They turned out so cute! My sister had melted peppermints in the oven for little "trays" to go under each house...such a cute idea!

The front two houses are Macy and Lucy's. Lucy's is on the left, and Macy's is on the right.

Once we got home that night, we made reindeer food to spread in the yard. We just used a hodge podge of things...oats, chocolate chips, and lots (and lots!) of glitter (oh, how I love me some glitter!)...

The girls got Santa's cookies and milk all ready...and placed Susan and Dottie right beside the plate so Santa wouldn't forget them. We sure are going to miss those funny elves!

The girls were in such a hurry to get in the bed. As a little girl, I always had so much trouble falling asleep on Christmas Eve. Not my girls. They are very eager to get in the bed and fall asleep so that they don't accidentally see Santa!

Right before bedtime, the girls wrote their letters to Santa. Lucy asked Macy to help her with hers so it wouldn't take too long. Lucy told Macy exactly what she wanted her to write. These words caused her Mama a lot of tears late that night...

Sweet tears. How precious is it that a 6 year old only wants "everybody to have a VERY merry Christmas." She never asked for one thing for Christmas. Because this was her wish.

She signed it herself...

I went to bed with such a full heart! And lots of anticipation for the next morning!