Lifestyle Change.

Whew! It has been forever since my last post & so so much has happened!
I guess the most prominent one would be that my husband & I have both become vegans.
Around Christmastime I discovered a site through Pinterest that had TONS of oatmeal recipes. I adore oatmeal. Seriously I thrive on it. The site is called Chocolate Covered Katie & it is just full of different desserts (a ton of which I have tried. All good). But for me the main attraction was the oatmeal. Peanut Butter Breakfast Pudding & Coffee Frappuccino Oatmeal are two of my favorites. I made them so very many times with the whole milk that was always in my fridge. Then I started wondering how different they would taste with soy or almond milk. I love soy milk & always get them in my lattes. I started wondering how big of a change it would be to become vegan. How hard would it be? Could I live without cheese & whole milk? What about my cold cereal? Bottled Starbucks drinks? Olive Garden soup & breadsticks!?!?

I didn't think I could do it. But I couldn't get it off my mind. So I got realistic.
Of course I could live without all of the aforementioned things. Would it be hard? Maybe. But the fact is I could do it. The real questions were.. What would my husband think? Would he be supportive? What would happen to our date nights?
Would he be okay only going to restaurants with vegan options? Would he mind if I didn't eat the same meals. Could I handle giving up meat & dairy but still preparing them for my husband & kids?

I decided to ask his thoughts on the matter. And to my surprise he said he would be completely fine with it. His only question was, "Do I have to become vegan?" I said I would never make him & he replied with, "Well , then we'll have to find some good vegan restaurants for our date nights."
What an amazing man I married. ;)

I decided that I was going to become a vegan for one year & see what I thought. Derick started doing his own research about it. He watched a bunch of documentaries & read info on the web.. After just a few days he informed me that he would be joining me on my vegan adventure! :)

We're still in the process of stocking our vegan pantry. It's definitely not something you can do all at once. But our inventory is growing. :)
It's so fun to try out new recipes. One of my favorite things about this switch is that my husband cooks with me now on the weekends. And he enjoys it! I love sharing the stove with him. Both of us leaning over a pan of sauteing veggies & soaking in the aroma together.
We've been vegan for a little over a month now & I have realized something... I am pretty confident that I would have failed on my own. My husband has been such a great support & motivation for me. It's almost too easy. :)

Well, after all of that.. I want to share a recipe. I have a handful of recipes to share, but this one was just too easy & too delicious not to share first. Have you ever had Cantaloupe stuffed chicken salad? It's amazing. But obviously the chicken is a no-no. I was craving it this afternoon & I asked Derick what he thought we could sub out for the chicken. I couldn't decide between spinach, spring salad or some sort of grain.. Then he suggested coleslaw! And the rest is history. :)
This was our dinner tonight:

This is the Perfect dish for summer. It's so light, but incredibly satisfying. We paired it with some Tofu Tom Kha Phak Thai Coconut Soup (it was from a can, I'm not quite that awesome yet). It was delicious!
And there's really no measuring. Just kind of eyeball the amounts.

Cantaloupe Coleslaw Salad:

1 cantaloupe
Shredded green & purple cabbage (or a bag of undressed coleslaw)
1 carrot, grated.
A couple tablespoons of vegenaise
Purple grapes (Green would totally work too. The purple just look prettier, I think)
Slivered almonds (or you could even do pecans)
Pepper to taste

In a large bowl. measure out enough of the cabbage for two people & grate in the carrot (if you use pre-made coleslaw, omit the carrot). Mix in a couple of tablespoons of vegenaise & mix well. Add enough to cover all of the cabbage, but you don't want it to be runny or overdressed. The juice from the cantaloupe is going to help moisten the slaw. Toss in a handful or two of grapes, about 1/4 cup of almonds & pepper to taste.
Cut your melon in half & remove the seeds. Stuff it with your slaw & enjoy! :)
This makes a perfect lunch on a warm day & pairs well with soup or maybe a small serving of pasta for dinner.

Also! You could easily make this for a group by making the slaw in a large bowl & adding cubed cantaloupe to it instead. Tastes the same, just a different presentation. :)

Yum!!

I hope you enjoy this recipe. Please let me know what you think, if you try it! :D

Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
We had such a fun day (or I should say week, really)! It is the first time I have ever truly celebrated Saint Patty's & it will definitely not be the last!
I am already so excited for next year. To add & continue traditions that we started this year. :)

It started last week. My daughter & I decorated our front window with some shamrock gel clings & put a few other decorations around the house. I was telling her about leprechauns & how if you catch one they will have to give you their pot of gold. She was Very excited about this & decided that we should try to catch one so we could be rich & buy anything we want. I took some tips from Pinterest (seriously can't get enough of that site) & helped her make a leprechaun hat trap.

It turned out so well! It was so cute to see her so excited about this. We set out some Lucky Charms marshmallows, since those are leprechaun's favorites. She went to bed talking about how rich we were going to be & that she couldn't wait to actually see a leprechaun.
However, when she woke up she discovered that the trap had failed to catch a leprechaun. I forgot to take a picture of it, but the little guy had somehow managed to get out of the trap. He left a note saying how clever her trap was, but that he was too smart to be trapped by it. And since she had tried to catch him, he was going to play a trick on her every day. He signed it "Seamus the Little Leprechaun" & left her a gold coin.

Later that morning we discovered that our milk had been turned green! That tricky little Seamus!

The green milk turned my cream of wheat green. I couldn't get past the color at first. I had to eat several bites with my eyes closed before it tasted normal. The mind is a powerful thing! Lol.

I didn't get pictures of the next couple of tricks, but the next day our toilet water was green.
The day after that she found her shoes in the freezer. That one was her favorite. She was cracking up. She said, "His tricks are getting better! The green milk & toilet water were a little funny, but not that great. But the shoes in the freezer is so clever!" Then she commented on how he can only turn things green.

In her room she has a string of pink twinkle lights to use as a night light, but half the strand broke a couple of weeks ago. I have been meaning to replace it, but Seamus did it for me! That kind little guy. He switched them out with a string of blue lights & a note on her mirror that said, "So you think I can only change things to green, do ya? Well green is, in fact, my favorite color, but it's not the only color I have up me sleeve!"
She searched all day for the trick & couldn't find it. Then at bedtime, she plugged in her lights & her jaw dropped. I think that is the one that made it all seem magical. She was just blown away.

The next day (Saturday, the 16th) there was no note to be found. She was So disappointed that she couldn't find it. When we got to the car to leave for the St. Patrick's Day Festival, she noticed that her booster seat & her brother's car seat had switched places. And she finally found the note from her little leprechaun friend in her seat with another gold coin. She loved this trick too.

The festival was a lot of fun, though I think we missed the majority of it. If we go next year, we will make sure to go earlier. We only really caught the carnival rides, by the last ride we were so hungry & exhausted from the heat that we had to leave.

We went to Red Robin! Yum!

Seriously, why is the sun so exhausting?? I was just really glad that we all put sunblock on, because it was hot & not a lot of shade.
We all slept like babies that night though.

This morning when she woke up she found this:

Her bedroom door had been sealed & she was trapped inside her room!

I didn't get a picture of her behind it, because she realized she could just tear it down before I could take a picture. 

She made her own little bow out of the ribbon & said that she was going to keep it forever. :)

 Then we discovered that all our shoes were missing & we found them on the ceiling fan!

And some of them were on the coat hangers! And our coats were on the shoe rack!

Brushing her teeth was hard since the toothpaste had been replaced with mustard!

She found the toothpaste in the fridge where the mustard was supposed to be.

"Mustard for toothpaste?? Gross, Seamus!"

Then there was the note.. The note wishing her a happy Saint Pat's. The note telling her that he had fun tricking her. The note bidding her farewell. And the note telling her about the clovers he brought her from his home.

She almost cried.

Dinner was a blast & super delicous!

We usually eat as a family, but it's normally on the floor or around the coffee table. So family dinner around the table is a nice treat for everyone. I think I want us to do it more often. :)

My son loves his big sister so so much. He would not take his eyes off of her.

She was making him laugh, it was adorable!

Green Garlic Orzo with Sausage

Gold Nugget Biscuits

 The orzo was so easy. I just melted one stick of butter, added one can of evaporated milk, garlic powder, white pepper & salt. Then I poured it over the cooked orzo noodles & added a ton of green food coloring. You can not tell from the picture, but it was pretty green. And it was absolutely yummy!
The biscuits were just bisquik biscuits (because I have yet to find ones that my family likes more) with a little bit of garlic powder in it & a LOT of yellow food coloring. Again, the picture couldn't capture the pretty gold color they turned into.
We had green sherbet ice cream with 7up (Irish Floats) for our drinks & sugar cookies with green frosting for dessert.

Oh, by the way! If you have not seen Secret of the Kells, you need to watch it. It will be on our St. Pat's watch list every year. It's an Irish cartoon that is kind of based on a true story about the church they're trying to build. It just has a bit more magic thrown in. Plus the animation is just beautiful! And it'll have you speaking in an Irish accent all day! :)

Honestly this was one of my favorite holidays that we have celebrated. I can't wait until Seamus comes back next year! Now to start getting ready for Easter. :)

How did you guys celebrate Saint Patrick's Day?? 

My Complaint Free World

Have any of you heard of the complaint free purple bracelet? I remember seeing it a few years ago on TV & I thought about getting one, but I just never did. It has been in the back of my mind ever since & I decided that there is no point in not trying to accomplish this. I do not have a purple bracelet, but I do have a bracelet from my church & I am just going to use that. The concept is this: Go 21 consecutive days without complaining. Every time you let a complaint slip (no matter how small) you switch the bracelet to your other arm. I am proud to say that I have only complained once since putting it on. I told my husband, daughter & brother (who is over here quite often) to let me know if they catch me complaining.
I'm pleasantly surprised that it isn't as difficult to give up as I thought it would be. Though it's only been two days & two of least favorite things are joining my life again very soon... Las Vegas heat & seasonal nasal allergies. Lol, quite a time to attempt this, but I think I'll manage. ;)
All part of my attempt to make a better me. :)


We're going to celebrate St. Patrick's Day this year. I have never in my life celebrated St. Patrick's other than wearing green & threatening to pinch those who don't. But a couple of weeks ago I decided that I was going to pick one or two minor/silly Holidays & make big traditions out of them. My first two thoughts were "National Flip Flop Day" & St. Patrick's Day. I haven't thought much about the former because as soon as the latter popped into my head I got too excited. I hopped onto Google to do a little research about the Holidays origin & found out that not only is it a religious Holiday, but that a lot of people recognize it in their own ways. I discovered the idea of leprechaun traps through Google/Pinterest & got a lot of good ideas. I had never heard of a leprechaun trap before & my daughter is beyond excited to set one (and let's be honest.. I am too). She already has a list of things she is going to spend her gold on, lol.
I saw that there is an Irish Festival in Henderson (about 30 minutes from us) that we will hopefully be able to attend. I bought some lime sherbet ice cream & 7up to make "Irish Floats", which were a huge hit. The sherbet turns the 7up a pretty shade of green, which matched the straws I put in the glasses. And to top it off they're delicious! I have sugar cookie dough in my fridge to make some shamrock cookies with my daughter, but the poor thing got sick yesterday & is still not up for much today. So I guess I'm on my own when it comes to the cookies.
All I have to do now is decorate the house a little, figure out what I'm going to make for St. Patrick's Day dinner & see if there are any good movies/books about the holiday that we can watch/read every year.
I was going to make a traditional Irish dish, since I found a lot of them on the internet, but... I really don't think my daughter would eat any of them. So I figured I would make a dish I know she will like & just add green food coloring or something. Hamburgers with green homemade buns, green pasta, chicken with green potatoes, etc... I think this is going to be fun. :-)

Have you ever celebrated St. Patrick's Day? What were your traditions?
What is your favorite non-major holiday?

First Ever Valentine's Day Celebration!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Whether you spent it with a significant other, a child, a pet, yourself, the TV or all of the above!

Normally I don't even acknowledge Valentine's Day. Not because I have a problem with it, but because I am not used to having someone to spend it with. I was single for a long time & my daughter wasn't really old enough to know or care about the Holiday. Last year on V-Day (every time I call it that, I think of V for Vendetta) I just made some homemade cards with my daughter & that was about it.
I didn't see it coming, so nothing was done.

This year I was prepared. I planned. I schemed. I waited not-so-patiently for this Hallmark Holiday.
The day finally arrived & went almost exactly as I had planned. I made him coffee, packed his lunch bag (with a card & his favorite energy drink inside) & sent him off to work. When he got in the car he would find a little love note & our song playing on the radio when he turned on the car.

By the afternoon I had set up the table & started working on dinner.

The finished table.

I think it turned out nicely. :)

I made Zucchini Lasagna which I found here & pull-apart muffins which I found here. The recipes are both MUCH simpler to follow than they seem. Very very very delicious!
My original plan was to have everything ready & waiting by the time he got home from work. But (much thanks to my adorable screaming son) that did not happen. Dinner was not quite finished, but the whole house smelled yummy. And it worked out because he had time to take a shower & relax before dinner.

Doesn't the lasagna look so yummy??
We had sparkling cranberry apple juice to go with it. 

My sexy Valentine. <3

After dinner we went to the movies (in our living room ;) ) & watched The Wedding Planner. Then we watched Rules of Engagement until we couldn't stay awake any longer. :) This was such a fun Valentine's Day. So so simple, but seriously so romantic & fun.

Pros to eating in on Holidays:
We had a quiet, delicious dinner.
We saved a ton of money!!
No 15-30 minute waits.
We didn't battle huge crowds.
We got to eat our romantic dinner in our most lovely pajama pants!
The movie "theater" was just a few footsteps away.
Did I mention that we saved so much money??

I would say that even if it's not your thing to cook, set up tables or just eat in... You should try doing this. It was quiet & fun. And it would even be fun if you pulled your significant other in on the planning. Maybe cooking together & then eating together. There are SOO many easy, quick meals online.
We both agreed that we will have to do this more often. We are also going to have a candlelit family dinner, per my daughter's request. :)

How did you celebrate Valentine's Day? Did you even acknowledge it? Either way, I hope it was a wonderful Thursday! :)

Strawberry Lemon Bread

Oh my gosh, this bread is so good!

You need to go make this, like right now.
You won't regret it.


I had a quick bread recipe, but I didn't have half of the ingredients, so I just said a quick prayer & started tossing things together. I don't experiment all that often. But I had a feeling this bread was going to turn out nicely & it did. It is just beautiful! :)



It comes together in about 10 minutes, plus bake time.

Strawberry Lemon Bread:
(Makes 1 Loaf)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup of strawberry yogurt (I used Yoplait with fruit inside)
1/3 cup coconut oil (you can substitute vegetable or canola oil)
1-2 tbsp lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon.
1 or 1 1/2 cups strawberries, cut in fourths (I used frozen, since it was all I had. I thawed them out a little first)

Mix the first 5 ingredients together. Put strawberries in a bowl & toss with about 1/4 cup of the dry mix, set aside. Mix the wet ingredients together (if using coconut oil, you will need to microwave it for about 30 seconds before adding it, so that it turns to liquid. Otherwise it'll be too hard to work in). Add wet ingredients to the dry mixture & stir just until moistened. Fold in strawberries. Do not overmix or your bread will be tough.

Pour batter into a greased loaf pan & bake at 325 for 45-50 minutes.
Cool for 10 minutes in the pan before removing. You can serve warm or at room temp.

Alterations:
1. I'm sure blueberries or raspberries would be delicious too!
2. You could make muffins out of this by just pouring the batter into muffin tins & baking at 325 degrees for about 18-22 minutes (do the toothpick test. If a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, they're good to go).
3. You could sprinkle a little bit of sugar over the top before baking to give it a slightly crisper/sweeter top.

This bread is not overly sweet. It's light, moist & delicious. This will definitely be a bread that I make during the summer. :)

If you try this, please let me know what you think! <3

Tastiest Resolution!

Good morning, everyone!

How are your New Years Resolutions holding up?
I have to say that mine is going quite well thus far. Though it's only been a couple of weeks, I am in a good "healthy" groove & I can't see myself breaking it (except on date nights). I feel so good. I have more energy & I've been sleeping better, but I think the best part is that the food I am eating doesn't taste healthy. Which is Always a plus! :)

I have oatmeal almost every morning. I Love oatmeal! I discovered Chocolate Covered Katie (I call her the Oatmeal Queen) & her many different oatmeal recipes. All of which are incredibly healthy AND delicious. :) The Almond Joy one is my favorite by a long shot. Peanut Butter Breakfast Pudding would be second with the Frappuccino one (Yes, it tastes Exactly like a frapp from Starbucks & you can eat it cold. It's so yummy) is a close third.

But check this out gang! (Did anyone catch my Conan reference there?)
Gather round gang! She has healthy cookie recipes too!

Oh my gosh are these cookies ever good. They're all vegan & have such small amounts of sugar that it's mostly protein or grain, depending on the type of cookie you're making. All her recipes are easy to follow & most of them are easy to manipulate depending on your diet (be it sugar free, gluten free, vegan, fat free, etc).

Yesterday my daughter practiced her reading with my son.
2 birds with one stone. She gets practice & the baby doesn't cry.

Whilst she did that, I made this!!
It's banana bread that I threw together in about 10 minutes.
The longest part was waiting for it to bake for 35 minutes.

It was so delicious. My poor husband is allergic to bananas, so he can't partake in this yumminess.
Poor me... I'm going to have to eat this whole thing myself. ;)
Oh, I forgot about my daughter. She hates bananas, but she loves banana muffins/breads. Isn't she weird?

The bread is one of her recipes. It's vegan & incredibly moist. Mine isn't as pretty as hers, but it tasted very good. The texture is a little bit different than a normal quick bread would be, but it's incredibly moist & scrumptious.

Today I am going to continue ignoring the giant tree in my living room (Yay for procrastinating!) & make some breakfast cookies she has on there & her Peanut Butter Bread. You all need to go visit her site! It is really wonderful. :) www.chocolatecoveredkatie.com

All goals depending on the boy, of course. Sometimes he tells me that baking is silly & I should just hold him instead. :)

See that face?
It's his "Why aren't you holding me?" face.

What were your New Years Resolutions (Or did you make any)?
How are they going?

Roos-N-More Zoo

Yesterday we went to Roos-N-More! We didn't quite have the funds to do anything for our daughter on her birthday, which was a couple of weeks ago. So we went out yesterday & celebrated her 6th birthday. It was so much fun! I can't say enough good about the day.

If you have never been to Roos-N-More & you live in, near or plan on visiting Las Vegas/Moapa in the near future you need to go. It is probably one of the coolest places I have ever been to. I'm not sure who had more fun, me or my 6 year old, lol. :)

This was our first time visiting Roos-N-More & I am going to write a review right here. I read a LOT of reviews for this place when I was researching places to take her. People were saying really good things about it, but there were a lot of unanswered questions.

$10.00 gets you in the door. Babies are free, but I'm not sure of the exact age cut-off. You can pay for special tours that show you extra animals that they may not normally be able to bring out into the main area, such as kangaroos/wallabies or porcupines as they may scare easily, hurt someone or themselves. So they're kept away & shown on more private tours.

Upon walking in the door we were greeted by a friendly little coatimundis. I had never heard of these before, but it was really cute. The staff was so friendly & offered bits of information about each animal. They would tell facts about where they're from, what they eat, what their habits are, etc.

Coatimundis

The next animal we saw was called a Bearcat. They told us the full name, but I can't remember it. This animal was super cute. It's face was very bear like, which I suppose is where it's nickname came from. ;) He was very sweet. And when you scratch him, your fingers smell like popcorn! It was so crazy. He was very friendly & would try to climb up on you & say hello (I apologize for the quality of my pictures. My camera phone was almost dead & not wanting to cooperate).

Bearcat.

A little farther past the Bearcat they had a little gated area that had a bunch of big animals. Two Bactrain (or two hump) Camels, a couple different types of Goat, a Yak (I think), a Zebra, a Donkey, a Zedonk (which is a half zebra/half donkey), some Miniature Horses, as well as a couple of other animals I couldn't identify.
There was an emu in there who did not want anyone to pet the donkey or the zebra, lol. The zebra would go to one side of the fence & stick it's face out for you to scratch, then the emu would come up & scare him away. Then the donkey, who was at the other end of the fence asking to be scratched would get scared away by the emu. This went on for several minutes. The emu was quite persistent that we not pet his friends, lol.

They had an indoor area where they kept the little baby animals like wallabies & a couple of other little critters I can't remember the names of. They had two different monkey breeds in there. Some creepy crawlies (millipede, tarantula, scorpion, king toad). A Kookaburra (yes, just like the song) that laughs & is seriously so so cute! There was a Toucan too! That thing did not look real either. We kept commenting that when it was still, it looked like a plastic statue.
There were many other little animals in there too, I just can't remember each one.

Kookaburra, petting the donkey (before Mr. Emu scared him away)
& trying to get a pic with the monkey, but he hopped away.

A baby kangaroo & an adorable, friendly little thing.. But I can't remember what it was called!
I wish my super power was remembering everything I read/hear.
I would rock.

Petting the babies.

A baby Serval. His name is Mufassa & he was SOOO cute!

My baby peeking out through the stroller.
It was quite cold, so we had him bundled up inside. :)
I <3 his face.

The black & white lemur, who I believe was named Remington, kept jumping on me. I did not mind this at all, as this little creature was so adorable. I would totally have taken him home (I am sure they are not meant to have as pets, but still.. he was a cutie). :) This was the best shot my brother took of him. He kept moving around.
2nd photo is my lovely husband petting a zebra. It is very surreal to see a zebra up close, I might add. You constantly see them in cartoons/movies/discovery channel, etc.. but to see one up close just seems so special. They are majestic creatures.

I'm cheesy.

Elexis, Me & Jonathan holding the Australian Lizard.
He was COOL! I would not at all mind if one of my kids said they wanted a lizard like this.

I didn't ask what kind of bird this was, but I thought she was pretty (Yes, I am say "she" because it's pink. I know it is quite possible that it was a boy, but I just have a feeling this one was a girl, lol). They had a lot of other birds there too.
A parrot greeted us when we came up & another chirped pretty loud & scared my daughter, lol.

The Millipede! Yes, I actually held it. I told my daughter that I would hold it if she did... And she did. So I had to. I minded it less than she did though, surprisingly. It actually just feels like the biggest roly poly ever.
My brother & I used to let those crawl all over when I was little, so I just found my inner child & it became less gross. Lol :)

Jonny took a turn. It is the weirdest feeling ever. All those little legs crawling on you...

They offer an "Otter Tour" and a "Kangaroo Tour". The former is $30.00 & books up quickly because they can only take a handful of people on that tour. The latter can take more people & for that reason, is a much cheaper $7.00.
Now we did not go on the Otter Tour, so I can not tell you anything about that. We did, however, go on the Kangaroo Tour & we all quite enjoyed it. We got to see the inside of a kangaroo's pouch. We saw African Crested Porcupines & learned a lot about them. They are actually pretty huge!
We saw a sloth, though it was too cold for them to bring him out. I think at $7.00 the tour was definitely worth it. I quite enjoyed myself. My husband, daughter & brother all enjoyed it too. So it's definitely a place for all ages.
My suggestion would be to learn from my mistake & CHARGE YOUR CAMERA before you go! I was silly & assumed it had a full (or at least mostly) charged battery.. But you know what they say when you assume. Silly me.
My video camera had only about 30-45 minutes left of battery power, so I got some good footage.. But not everything I would have liked to film. And my phone was almost dead too, so I didn't get to take as many photos as I would have liked. And out of the many I did take, only a handful of them turned out nicely.

So take a good *charged* camera. Eat a good breakfast before you go, so you're not hungry halfway through. Maybe even bring lunch with you & keep it in the car (they won't let you bring food into the park) since the parking lot is not at all far away from the park itself.
Also, remember that you are going to a petting zoo & therefor you will smell like an animal when you leave. I don't know why this thought hadn't occurred to me. We made plans to go eat at Rain Forest Cafe afterward & I am sure we smelled lovely, lol. Next time it will be home first for a shower.

All in all though, the day was simply wonderful. Even the cold weather wasn't enough to lessen the fun.
We all came home, took turns showering & then made cups of hot tea & warm lemonade to warm us up & try to prevent getting sick from the cold weather.

Elexis sleeping with her new snake from Roos-N-More.
She named her Mrs. Snake. :)

One more picture of Zander for good measure. :-D
Can't get enough of him! <3

A New Attitude for a New Year. :)

Hi! How was everyone's New Years celebration? We celebrated last night. I had set the DVR to record the fireworks so we could watch them the next evening with our daughter. I don't know about you, but New Years at our house calls for Sparkling Apple Cider. This year we all agreed that pumpkin waffles should be thrown into the mix. :)
We turned on the Countdown to New Years recording around 6:30pm & everyone watched that while I made waffles. When the countdown reached a minute, we poured the cider, counted aloud the last 10 seconds, raised our glasses & shouted Happy New Year!! It was fun. Then we told Elexis it was late & time for bed (though I'm not sure she believed it was actually midnight).
The rest of us then watched 50 First Dates. It was a unique, belated, but very fun New Year celebration.
What did you do?

As for resolutions? I haven't made one in a handful of years (because I normally just break them), but this year I think I am ready to try again. I want to work on my mind & body. I want to learn more & get healthier. I want to work on myself. I have been hearing the phrase, "you can't help anyone if you don't help yourself" a lot lately it seems. So I'm going to roll with it & start working on me.
I have found a handful of very healthy & VERY filling breakfast recipes that I am going to start with. I already tried one of them. I've had it three times this week & I LOVE it. It's basically blended peanut butter oatmeal. So scrumptious. :)
What are your resolutions??