Quick Successions: New Mexico Edition

We rotate our NYE food, fun, and fanfare. Some years we do pizza. Some years we go out to eat. Some years we make food. This year we made food with an Asian flair. The photo features teriyaki beef, chicken curry, and rice. There are also some lil' smokies sausages because I associate them with New Years'. We rented a movie and watched it since it is hard to do too much with small children.  Tomorrow, we are going to a new Year's Day party with some people Brian and I had a class with over the summer. One of the curiosities about this university is that there is a lot of social drinking at all levels, not just the crazy undergrads. For instance, at the end of this semester, my professor took our class to a bar and paid for drinks during the time we would have had class. We also went to a party for my new supervisor at her house and they had to look around for several minutes to find water for us. While we were drinking it, about seven people tried to take it and get...

We got up this morning just after 11 a.m. Both Brian and I woke up around 7 and I went downstairs to start getting food ready and when I was done Brian was asleep again so I went back to bed too. So 11 was when we started the Christmas fanfare. Hannah is toilet training and so she was not quite ready to open presents, as you will see in the video.     She eventually got into the spirit and tried to open every present. We let her help open even the ones that weren't hers. When she had a pile and started playing we let her stop. Here is our Christmas feast. I made citrus roast beef in the crock pot. It has lemon, orange, onion, cilantro and parsley. It had a very good subtle flavor. We also had Yukon gold potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade cranberry chutney, salad, homemade rolls, lemon pie, and pumpkin cake. Hannah and I made the cake and pie together the day before. These pretty plates were on sale at Kohl's. I kept going to visit them so Brian i...

There is a store called Bargain Depot near our house and I saw a sign that said Santa was there. So we stopped by. We weren't sure if she would like him, but they were fast friends.  

Here is the original. Through the miracle of cropping, you can't see how I am poised to catch her, but here is our shelf elf.

Holiday preparations are in full swing at the Rice house. We decorated our tree after Thanksgiving. Hannah helped by handing us the ornaments. We hung foam ornaments at the bottom of the tree because they get picked off the tree and packed around the house. This same ornament bandit likes to hide under the tree. I must confess that I participated centrally or peripherally in events on several occasions that led to a fallen tree, so I have it coming. We won't be putting the gifts under either, to keep Hannah from exploding with anticipation. I love presents and I used to count them and shake them in advance of Christmas, so I have that coming too.   Hannah has also been busy teaching her toy kitten to play the piano. She is a very encouraging teacher even though the kitty often plays the wrong notes. Their favorite songs to sing are Deck the Halls and the Jingle Bells. Creative liberties on the tunes are often taken. I get up at 6 or 7 a.m. to do my homework so that I can...