25°f/-4°C, light snow cover, partly sunny.
Once again, we have made it through to this start of a new calendar year. We stayed up last night til midnight, enjoying cheese, crackers, and fruit.
Most years we watch the ball drop in Times Square
but this year it just didn’t seem relevant to our lives. Thousands of people, celebrities, loud music, noise? That is not how we wanted to start this year.
After the morass our country plunged into last year, we preferred the quiet of a country night!
So, some good Cabernet, made very close to here and quite good, was our toast instead of champagne! Keeping it local, I guess. Then we were off to bed.
I did my usual prep for the new year---bills paid, floors swept, dishes done, house decluttered, a good fire in the fireplace. We used to have a big bonfire with lots of people here, and that was fun, but those days are passed. Now, to keep Larry from sweeping or taking out the trash. Don't want to throw away our luck!
I think two of my sons and their families got together and went to Mannington, WV, which is near Aaron's home, for the annual "pepperoni roll drop". The pepperoni roll is a West Virginia thing, basically bread dough wrapped around pepperoni and baked. It was a staple of the Italian immigrant coal miners that settled in the Fairmont area and has become an iconic West Virginia food. I have to admit. I don't care for them, but my guys all love them.
It will be a quiet day here. Yesterday I entered ALL my receipts from last year, the first time I have done that since we started this little side business.
That felt like quite an accomplishment! I still have to enter some of the online receipts, which won't take long. So I am far ahead of the game when it comes to getting my taxes ready. Some years I start planning my garden seed order on New Year's, but I plan to go up to Berlin Seed Company in Ohio to get them again this year, as I have had good luck with their seeds. It's a nice road trip anyway, up into Amish country.
On a happy note, I saw a cardinal this morning! As well as several other birds, so perhaps this is a hopeful sign that the birds are returning? We can hope. An old saying is that a cardinal is the soul of a loved one returning to visit. I would like to believe this one was my son Jon, coming to wish us well in the coming year.
Dinner today? Keeping it simple: ham, cabbage, and baked potatoes. There will be wrapped coins in the cabbage, of course, so that we will have all kinds of money in the coming year. You can see how well that has worked in the past, right? This is my family's tradition for New Year's. Do you have any special things you do on this day? I have written several posts about this topic; click here to read one of them that combines several.
Enjoy the day, whatever you choose to do (or not do!)
...and welcome to the New Year, Susanna, be well.
ReplyDeleteHadn't heard about that pennies in the cabbage idea, but hopefully it works! Have a good 3036.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a perfect New Year's Eve celebration. If I were going to go to any NYE celebration, it would be for the pepperoni roll drop. This is the first time I've heard about it. I do like pepperoni rolls, but they are not all created equal.
ReplyDeleteHave a great year, Susanna.
ReplyDeleteYou wrapped up the old year well and now on to the new. We watched the New Year in London time (7 p.m. here), enjoying the fireworks on the Thames, while munching on cheese, appetizers and eventually, leftover Thai food from the night before. Then on to the Marx brothers to laugh away the old year. We made it to the new year, and now it has begun. A slow day, and that's good. Life will happen soon enough! Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I prepped the house early yesterday. No housework, etc...happening today. We didn't stay up this year. In the bed with a good book by 10 pm.
ReplyDeleteDan and I hadn't planned to stay up to see the new year but we got hooked on an old Goldie Hawn movie and decided to see it to the end. Slept a bit later this morning but knowing that the granddog would need to be walked we got about probably 30 minutes later than usual. Tonight we will have the turkey pot pie again. Had it last night too. I made a top and bottom crust this time.
ReplyDeleteI woke up at 5 minutes to midnight, and was happy to report I didn't hear a single firework or gunshot. So back to sleep happily I went, and when I woke at 7, I gifted myself with another hour snuggled under covers sleeping. The day has been one of looking at old shows about cooking...America's Test Kitchen. I have some back pain that's new, and have worn my sunglasses all day to maybe avoid (successfully by now) any migraines triggered by glare of the sunlight. Sunshine is gone now, and I'm also going to do crackers and cheese, and some shrimp cocktail, for a light supper. Happy 2026!
ReplyDeleteHappy Happy New Year to you and your family. I like all your traditions and I especially love the idea that a cardinal is the soul of a loved one coming to visit. May all your wishes for the coming year come true.
ReplyDeleteI hadn’t hear that saying about cardinals, but I have a cardinal print just behind my head as I type this. After my father’s passing, it seemed like we had a special cardinal sighting, and this print was gifted to us subsequently.
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