Happy New Year!

Okay, so we’re three days into the new year, but I really think it’s acceptable to wish people a happy new year during the first week or so of the new year. 

As usual, I let blogging go during December.  I meant to post some cute Christmas ideas and some more recipes, but time just got away from me.  Like it does every December.  So this post is going to be combination of a December/2017 wrap up and a new year post.  Do lengthy posts make up for not posting often? 

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, and a very Merry Christmas.  We enjoyed every minute of our holidays.  It was wonderful for Nick to be off for the holidays, and not to be on call, or too tired from working nights.  We went to my sister’s house for Christmas, along with Nick’s mom and step-dad, and our friend Alex.  We spent three nights there, and had a very laid back holiday of eating too much, opening lots of presents, and watching movies.  Everyone had a good time, and I think everyone was very happy with their gifts.


On the baking front, it felt almost like I was running a bakery during the last week or so before Christmas.   We had a big snow early in December, and lost power at our house for most of the weekend, which really put my baking schedule behind.  I prefer to deliver everyone’s Christmas desserts before the week of Christmas when people tend to be inundated with Christmas goodies, but it just didn’t happen this year.  I did get them all made and delivered before Christmas, so I’m calling it mostly a win. 

I never remember to keep track of how much I bake, but between various departments at work, friends, various offices (chiropractor, etc.), I know there were a lot of desserts made.  The Monday before Christmas started off with me loading four cherry crunches into the car to take to various people at work. I enjoy it, though, and people seem to be happy whenever you show up with a dessert for them.

The Christmas tree has survived Caroline’s attention fairly well.  Most of the really breakable ornaments are clustered around the top of the tree, but the tree and ornaments have survived Caroline’s first Christmas mostly unscathed.  The tree is still up.  Nick grew up with the tradition of leaving it up until after January 6th.  I never had a Christmas tree growing up, so am more than happy to go along with the traditions he’s used to, especially if that means we get to enjoy the tree a little longer.  We plan to take it down this weekend, so it only has to survive Caroline’s attentions for a few more days before it’s stowed safely in the closet.

We spent New Year’s Eve ay home.  We’ve just never wanted to go out for it.  It turned out to be a very good decision because the roads here were really icy on New Year’s Eve.  Lots of people around here rang in the new year from the interstate.  A few people from work were among the people who did that, and it didn’t sound like fun.  I think we’ll stick with spending that particular holiday at home, in our pajamas.  It’s definitely more fun than sitting in traffic for hours.

I don’t even want to talk about how cold it has been for the past few days.  I know it’s a lot colder for a lot of people, but we’re not even getting above freezing most days.  We’ve been dropping down to single digit temperatures some nights, which just seems wrong.  Temperatures need to be double digit!  There is some talk of snow for us next week.  Nothing definitive yet, so I’m hoping that it won’t happen.   I am not a fan of snow.  I’m ready for spring and warm weather. 

So what about you?  How were your holidays?  How is 2018 starting off for you?  Are you freezing too?