Christmas and a Brand New Year

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a nice quiet one - family time, friends, lots of food, presents. Fun.

This year Santa got cookies and milk and chocolate covered cherries. We also had to put carrots out for the reindeer, plus a pan of water. Brennan is very thorough. No thirsty reindeer at our house. Christmas Eve we watched Santa Claus is Comin' to Town and the listened to a reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Brennan said he was "so nervous" when I tucked him in. I don't know if he was nervous because he was excited, or nervous because he was afraid he was going to be on the naughty list. Ha.

As it turned out, he did make it onto the good list. This was right as he realized Santa had left presents under the tree. I love it!



Brennan had a blast opening his presents and helping us open ours. He was just as excited about the presents that weren't his. See my new Keurig on the couch. Yep, awesome! Thanks Santa! ;)





Brennan's new scooter. The scooter that was the stand-in for the skateboard that was on his list. Which prompted a discussion about Santa not always getting you want you want, but what is best for you after Brennan told us Santa "let him down" by not giving him a skateboard. I think all is good now. And for as many times as Brennan has wiped out on this thing, Santa definitely made the right call. :)



Jason got a home beer making kit. He's been wanting one forever, so he is a happy camper, or in this case, Beermaker. Apparently, coffee and beer make the world go 'round in our house. Ha ha!



The rest of the week we spent mostly kicked back relaxing. It was nice. Apparently, I was extra relaxed, because the only other picture on my camera after opening Christmas presents is the cinnamon roll Christmas tree I made for breakfast Christmas day. I know, right, totally not my normal take pictures of everything self. :)



And so that is that. Farewell 2012! I can't say it was a bad year, because it did have lots of good parts, but is was definitely a year of change and being unsettled for us. With Jason's deployment, we were apart for half of it, and then after he got back, most of our time and efforts were focused on getting ready for our big move. So now here we are, in Turkey, (most of) the hard parts are over, and this year we can hopefully just focus on being together, having some fun and adventures, and enjoying this amazing opportunity we have to be part of a different country and culture.

Welcome 2013!



I'm looking forward to it!

Hello January

I'm still in a little bit of denial that the new year is here.  Is it really January?  And just where did December go?  It has all just zoomed right on by.  Crazy.



I hope everyone had a wonderful time over the holidays.  Our's was nice; very low key and quiet.  We watched lots of movies, played games, ate lots of yummy food, and just enjoyed hanging out.  The weather did not cooperate and give me snow for Christmas.  Nor has it snowed since then, but I did see on the news that Florida is expecting a hard freeze in the next couple of days.  Weird.  Yesterday we did drive up into the mountains, and there was plenty of snow to see up there.  Snow on the Aspen trees...so pretty.



On New Year's Eve I gave up and went to bed before midnight.  I did make it until midnight Eastern time, so I did see the ball drop.  That counts for something, right? : )

The fortune from the first cookie we opened on New Year's Day.  How great is that!  I hope this comes true for everyone.



This week we have lots of appointments and errands on our agenda.  Jason will be leaving for deployment soon, and our time is growing short. : (

Since we have so much going on, I will probably take a blogging break the rest of the week.  I'll be back soon though.  I have lots of crafts, decorating and project ideas in my head, and I just know you just can't wait to hear all about them.

Please keep Jason in your thoughts and prayers.

It's All About the Black-Eyed Peas

On New Year's Day we had our traditional health, wealth and happiness meal.  I usually make a super yummy Black Eyed Pea Bake (from a recipe I found in Cookie magazine...so sad they stopped printing it), but this year we just went traditional and had pork medallions wrapped in bacon, sauteed pears with a balsamic glaze, (ok, not completely traditional) steamed cabbage, black-eyed peas, and cornbread.

So, the other day I happened to catch part of the News at Noon on one of our local stations.  (I know, right, that never happens!  Usually, PBS Kids is the only channel that seems to work around here during the day.)  On the show, they were discussing what they were going to eat on New Year's.  The subject, of course, went to black-eyed peas, and the anchor lady said to make sure to eat plenty of those, because that is the "wealth" part of the meal. 

What???  I always thought the cabbage was the part that represented money. 

When I told Jason my new info, he wrinkled his nose.  He hates really dislikes black-eyed peas, and thinks they taste like dirt.  For past New Year's dinners, he would take about three peas and call it good.  But when the time rolled around over the weekend to eat our New Year's Dinner, he was a real champ.   He took a big helping, and even went back for seconds.  The seconds had to be doused in honey mustard, or "new mu-start dip-it" as Brennan calls it.  (The mustard bottle is only half-full, but he still calls it new, and it's the same honey mustard I always buy, but for some reason this bottle is special and he eats it on EVERYthing.) 

Anyway, that's a different topic, back to the peas.  When Jason got done with all his black-eyed peas, he said, "If I ate that many of those dirt-peas for nothing, I'm going to be mad.  There better be a check in the mailbox on Monday morning."  In my head I was thinking, "Yeah, like that's going to happen."

So fast-forward to last night when Jason brought the mail in.  In the stack of magazine and junk mail, there was an envelope from our insurance company.  Can you guess what was in it?

Yep.

It was our safe driver bonus check.  I love it when stuff like that happens.

Oh yeah, it's going to be a really good year!

Happy New Year!

Normal life resumed in the Bal Household this morning.  Jason went back to work, Brennan went back to school, I went to the gym, and obviously I am working on the ole' blog again.  Let's just say so far it's felt like a long day.  It's only 12:30, but it feels like it should be 5:30.  The day started off at o'dark 'clock when Brennan burst out of his room and slammed the door ( his normal mode of exiting his room in the morning) and declared that he had "schooooool tooooo-day!!!!"  Yes, yes, baby, you do, but not for another 3 hours or so.  Definitely a rude awakening for the mommy. : )

I don't know what the rest of the afternoon will hold, but I'm thinking that it will be minimal.  We had such a nice Christmas break spent mostly in "hibernate at home" mode, and it's hard to just go back to normal.  (We only left the house twice.  Once to go to Target, and once to go to Barnes & Noble.  Loved it!)  So since I can, I've decided to get normal back in increments.  Today, we had a full busy morning, tomorrow we will work on being busy a little longer.  While I am still feeling the need to hibernate, I also have a strong urge to organize.  I think Savers will be getting a truckload from us really soon.  After we took all the Christmas decorations down, and rearranged the living room furniture, the room looked so fresh and spacious that I want to get that feeling in the whole house.  I'm thinking that no nook and cranny of the house or garage (sorry, honey) is safe.  I also have a list of back-burnered projects that I think need some attention this month.  Since the temperature has decided to hover around 20 degrees the past week or so, and doesn't look like it's going to go up much anytime soon, I think it's the perfect time to tackle some of the inside stuff. 

Yeah, I'll stick with the inside stuff.  A little bit off topic, but I can tell I haven't lived in Utah long enough yet.  I see people out and about all the time when the temperature is in the teens, wearing shorts and t-shirts.  The first couple of times, I just thought I was seeing random crazy people, but I've since learned it's a pretty common thing.  I'll wear my shorts and hang out outside when there's no chance of any of my appendages freezing off, thank you.

And now, since this post has gotten to the point of talking about frozen body parts, I think I will bring it to a close. : )

Happy New Year, Everyone!  Have a great week!

p.s.  Thank you all for sticking around for another year to check us out and to read all my mommy ramblings.  It's good to know that you're out there and I'm not just talking to myself.  I foresee good things for us this year, and I'm glad you're all along for the ride.