New Years Day

New Years Day was very relaxing for me. I spent the entire day at home (with the exception of a short and refreshing run through our neighborhood) and loved that I didn't have much of an agenda. I woke this morning refreshed after a full night's sleep - the first full night of sleep without spending a restless hour turning over at 3 a.m. in several weeks - and I honestly tried to make the most of the day today. Not to do the most chores or run the most errands or accomplish all that much, but rather I tried consciously to relax and enjoy this holiday at home as a family. Relaxing is sometimes harder for me than accomplishing, but I am going to try and make a more conscious effort towards this in 2011.

I spent a good amount of time today cooking (which I love), and in between I enjoyed time with the kids or watching the kids play together. Just after lunch Amelia and John disappeared to their rooms quietly for awhile (AWESOME!) and when I went to check on them I discovered that they had built a fort around John's bed.

The fort was the "Kid's Club", and John was the President and Amelia was the Vice President. When I entered the room I was told that the kids alternate through various activities while in the fort. First they have quiet time, then story time, then video game time. I arrived during quiet time, when Amelia was writing in her journal and John was rolling around under the bed with his flashlights and light sabers.

John with his flashlight, beaming at the underside of the bed.

Later this afternoon as dinner was simmering on the stove and I was waiting for my popovers and rice to cook, Amelia and I decorated the dining room. This was hands-down my favorite activity of the day. Amelia and I sat at the dining room table and made placemats for our family's New Years Dinner. Amelia made the placemats for John and me, while I was in charge of creating placemats for Scott and Amelia. We followed Amelia's idea, which was to create placemats that showcased each person's characteristics and personality. We decorated plain white pieces of paper with markers and stickers. From top to bottom below,



"Amelia... is SMART in school! Amelia... makes beautiful artwork!"
"Scott... is a SUPER dad! Scott...is a loyal Dolphin's fan!"
"John...pictures of a light saber, NFL football, baseball in glove, Leapster hand-held video game"
"Wendy...pictures of a Checkers game (Amelia and I often play games together), book (titled "Teacher Twins", she said it's because I am a teacher and because I love to read...very true), a broom (when I asked why a broom - given that I don't like to clean - Amelia's response was "well, mom, you do have to do most of the chores..."), and a Wii remote (interesting, since I rarely play Wii).

The other component to decorating was that Amelia wanted to make a strand of icicles to drape around the edge of the dining room table. I convinced her that perhaps we should drape them around the chandelier instead. Amelia agreed, so she dutifully cut out dozens of triangle-shaped pieces of white paper and taped them to a piece of string, which I draped around the light fixture in the dining room. Amelia thought it looked gorgeous and I was happy that she was having fun! Below is our table set for the meal.

Our New Years menu consisted of roast beef with mushroom gravy, black-eyed peas, rice, collard greens, and homemade popovers. Despite the heaviness to the meal, I have to say it was all quite delicious! And we have my homemade raspberry tart coming for dessert. I hope the black-eyed peas bring us good fortune and prosperity in 2011!