It's Here 2012

Bugg did manage to get some peanut butter on the pinecone, but needed some New Year's peanut butter for her ownest self. You know peanut butter is a real treat.
The bird feeders have to go way up high to keep them out of Arwen's mouth.

Lest you think peanut butter was the dish of the day, we enjoyed our usual corned beef, cabbage and black-eyed peas.
Giddy-up thought it was all dee-wishus.

Time for his winter bath. Between the peanut butter and drinking straight from the fountain, you'd think we never feed this kidlets or give them anything to drink. The baby enjoyed a bath, a drink and live action of the chickie girls out of the kitchen window.
Before dinner, he was a bit resistant to napping, so I bundled him up and we took a big walk. He fell fast asleep and I basked in his chubby cheeked dreamland, holding him close while he snoozed. He woke up smiling and happy, so he and I continued to play and Mama got to eat her New Year's dinner with the Papa and the Pappy in relative calm. That's the longest I've had a hold of that boy since he was tiny.

So, to end the year cuddling a sweet girl and begin a new year cuddling a sweet boy was a terrific end and an equally marvelous beginning.

Pete took in a movie with David on the eve of the New Year, then he and Ol' Mother Hubbard visited his sweetie on Sunday. He's visiting shut-ins and attending grief counseling and doing the best he can.

I returned to work today, while the Handy Man had one last day off. My students return tomorrow.

Happy New Year to all.

New Year's Eve Tradition

Since Bean was a wee tiny fellow, five months old, we have kept him on New Year's Eve. On his third New Year we added Missy Bugg. So this is eight New Year's Eve's as grandparents. On his second, when he was 17 months old, we began the tradition of taking down the tree and moving it outdoors on New Year's Day. We made pinecone bird feeders to give our feathered friends a winter snack. I didn't think he'd think to much of it, one way or the other, but even so small, he enjoyed messing in the seed.

There wasn't much tradition to New Year's Evening as they weren't up for ringing in the New Year for several years. This year they were old enough and when I said I'd bought hats and horns and sparkling grape juice, my boy responded, " Umm, don't be offended, but I thought you were too old to stay up that late." After laughing a lot I informed him it wasn't my strong suit, but I'd taken a nap and then had a big mug of coffee, so I was prepared.

What to do? Last year I believe it was science experiments. This year, the temperature was fairly mild for December- in the forties, so I asked Handy Man about a bonfire. He thought it would be great.

Up the hill we went for hot dogs and marshmallows and a not too scary ghost story.

Bugg declared it all good when you have " a warm fire, a warm marshmallow, some warm hot chocolate and a warm girl." I couldn't argue.

Lilli asked if it was midnight yet at about 8:00. When she found we were a ways from the big event, she curled up in my lap and went sound asleep- still with her little ketchup mustache.

In case you didn't know the big news, Peter Jackson and cohorts finally have a release date for The Hobbit. I am so very excited. We started reading the book to Bean, while Miss Bugg napped.

Pappy introduced him to all thirteen of the dwarves. Bugg slept about a half hour and woke up happy.

Handy Man and I have been throwing out and cleaning. There was some old stuff to burn and the kiddos loved tossing it in the fire.

We didn't come into until about 11:00. A bit of play, then time to watch the ball drop in NYC.

Time for some bubbly and to call Mom and Dad for a Happy New Year's!!

They don't drink soft drinks, so were a little unsure of the sparkling juice and just sipped through the first moments of 2012.

By this time, ha, I was feeling my age and ready for a long winter's nap.

New Year Fun

Lest you think I spent the entire holiday cleaning, I will share some traditional New Year's Eve/New Year's Day fun. When the first gramerling came, Handy Man and I became the official keeper of gramerlings on New Year's Eve. This year we had Bean and Bugg. We've celebrated with a sleepover every year of their wee lives. I can't believe it's been seven New Year's.

We inherited a new train table, so Handy Man and Miss Bugg put it together on the the front porch, since we were having an unseasonably warm sixty degrees. Bugg told me she could do the screws, because she was the best puzzle maker. We worked on "Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey" which came out of my four year old in lots of variations through the assembly experience. She is really good at this kind of thing.

It was warm enough for a long swing time with tall tales of wolves and bears. This night for science, we experimented with the stuff in disposable diapers, grew an alien and invisible cubes, with lots of measuring. We watched movies, ate popcorn and fudge and stayed up very late. Bugg fell asleep in my lap. I love that.

Do you have a traditional New Year's menu? We always have corned beef, cabbage and black-eyed peas for good luck. Don't you wonder who starts that stuff? I decided I'd start my own blessing gems (gramerly made powdered sugar donuts) for breakfast. After breakfast we departed in our jammies and boots to the pine forest to collect cones for bird feeders.

We discovered a bird's nest blown out of the tree. We at first thought we discovered fairy beds of piled-up pine needles in one of the trees. Bean investigated further and realized the pine needles were camouflage for a different nesting spot.

We returned home to take down the tree. Bugg enjoyed helping and looking and cooing over all my sweet angel ornaments.
Time to make the bird feeders.

Out they go on our re-purposed tree.

Between the flu, cleaning, loved one's having surgeries and being hospitalized, and oh, yeah, Christmas, Cluckingham Palace had been sadly neglected, so out to the coop, still in jammies and boots, armed with shovels and clean bedding, to clean-up our chickie girls humble abode.

Gee, I always clean-up every week. Now I know why- what a job! Bean and Bugg stuck with me though and we got it done.

Ahh, time for some fun on the awesome new jeeps!

By the time my co-celebrants headed home, I was exhausted. It was a Happy New Year!

Wow, It's 2010

I took some of my littles to see The Princess and the Frog on New Year's Eve. It wasn't quite as overwhelming and crowded as our Christmas movie experience. It was a cute flick. The firefly character was my favorite. When we returned home, we used up the very last of the sparklers from Rae Rae's wedding to ring in the New Year.

The kids enjoyed them just as much as Fourth of July I think.

Now it was time to introduce Bean and Bugg to Jiffy Pop. Bean had no idea what we were doing with that flat silver pan, but he was a good sport and faithfully shook, shook, shook it over the heat.

Well, whatever. Uh, oh, something is happening!
It's growing!
Well, look at that. This stuff works immensely better than it did when I was a kid. Fun times.