Welcome 2019! It’s 11:35 on January 1, 2019 and my urge to start and finish this blog on this day may or may not come from a new year resolution. So here I am. Starting a new year, reflecting over the day and putting my experiences into words.
We spent New Years Eve at our friends, Daryl and Adina’s house for dinner and a friendly game of poker. Daryl is a fantastic BBQer and never fails to put on a feast for a king’s army. We were treated to piles of BBQ chicken, ribs, macaroni and cheese, baked potatoes and biscuits. His wife, Adina, is from Romania and decided to spend New Years Eve with her Romanian friends in Atlanta for a big ethnic event. She looked beautiful in a ball gown and graced us with her presence before leaving us for the night. The rest of the evening was spent eating and playing poker before a champagne toast at the stroke of 12. It was a phenomenal way to close out 2018.
I spent New Year’s Day putting up some of the leftover Christmas decor. I kept the tree and decorations up a few days longer in the basement to celebrate with my sister, since we couldn’t get together before the holidays. I found some time, once the basement was clear, to finish painting a French Provincial side table that I started last week. It was my first attempt at gold leaf and I am thrilled with the way it turned out.
I consider myself to be pretty superstitious and have adopted the traditional southern New Year’s Day meal. Over the past 23 years of living in the south, I have perfected my menu of honey glaze ham, black eyed peas, collard greens and cornbread. My kids, who normally hate greens, have come to love this meal and rave about my cooking. Black eyed peas are eaten for luck, collard greens are for money and they eat it all. I’m already feeling like the luckiest person alive. Our best friends Lanie and Jason joined us with their 18 month old daughter Jamie and we spent the evening watching Jamie and my 6 month old grand baby, Iris, playing on the living room floor.
I couldn’t ask for a better start to 2019 and I am ready to put some action into finishing a few goals for this year. I WILL start tomorrow with eating better and sticking to my Weight Watcher goals. BRING IT ON!
I’m a bit late with this post, but at least I can say I finished. Good night!
Jayme