New Year's Eve and Day

OK, so the days after Christmas post titles only lasted for two posts and now I'm over it. 

The morning of the 31st Michael and I went to Trader Joe's and bought the ingredients to make tiramisu.  I already wrote a post about making it.  My last post of 2015.  Here's a flashback for you.

When I was done with that I went to the party store for some New Year's accessories and then I went to my friend Elisa's house.  I hung out with her for a few hours and then returned back to my parent's house.

Ginger had heard a scary noise (premature fireworks perhaps) and was freaking out so I picked her up, put her in a bed and covered her with a blanket.  And you know what?  She calmed right down.  No more shaking at all.  I think there is some merit to those thunder vests that calm dogs down with sensory feedback in the form of a compression vest.

Our New Year's Eve family tradition is to eat BBQ for dinner.  It dates back to maybe the year before Spencer was born or maybe the year he was born.  Anyway, last year we were invited out for Italian food for a birthday party and we didn't eat our 12/31 BBQ.  And you know what? 2015 was not the best of years and the lack of BBQ was probably like 67% of the problem.

We weren't taking any chances this year.  My parents already had plans so we got take out from Brush Fire BBQ.

The pulled pork fries were particularly decadent and delicious. 

Champagne goes really well with saucy meat.

We're wearing the accessories I bought at the party store.

After dinner I made a pavlova for the next day.  I let Elliott lick the beaters and spatula.

Ginger heard another scary noise and was on HIGH alert.

Her worst nights of the years are the 4th of July and the 31st of December.  She hates those days.

My parents got home around 8 and there were all sorts of shenanigans with Grandpa.

Elliott went to bed around 10, but we let Spencer stay up until midnight.  It was his first time.  You'd think that I, as a dedicated blogger, would have taken a picture of his first New Year's midnight, but, sadly no.

Ginger was stressed out from all the scary noises the night before, so her January first started with a nap.

The rest of us started the day with sub-par donuts from Dunkin Donuts.

There were two donuts left so I broke them into pieces and covertly put a piece on my dad's hand as he read the paper.  It sat there for a funny long time before he noticed it.

Ginger enjoyed the warm sunshine and no scary noises outside.

After breakfast we got ready to go to Nick's house.

The Polish custom for New Year's Day is to eat pork and sauerkraut for luck in the New Year.  My grandma was always the hostess for this and  I ate pork and sauerkraut every January 1st of my whole life until 2003.  That was the last time I was in Tucson on the 1st.  Nick took over the tradition after my grandmother died.  

The pavlova I made.

The rum raisin tiramisu.  It was very boozy.

The other boy is the son of one of Nick's friends.  We did not adopt an almost two year old.

We used the timer to take some family pictures.

Some were good.

Some were photobombed.

And some were goofy.

My mom was cold so she tried warming up by the fire.

Then we decided to go outside where it was actually warm.

My dad started doing some inspecting,

And then all of a sudden with no warning, he was on the roof.

We made him come down before there was a New Year's Day trip to the ER.

From Nick's house we went over to see Michael's parents one more time.  They had just bought an electric fireplace and mantel unit so we helped them get it set up.  

First the old entertainment center was moved to the guest bedroom. 

An empty wall full of possibilities.

The new fireplace mantel.

And that concludes the 2015 portion of the holiday wrap-up.