Christmas and New Years

I know it is a little late for a Christmas and even a New Years blog, but I've been busy and or lazy and I didn't want to miss out on getting some of my thoughts down regarding the holidays.

Christmas was quiet and peaceful.  All of my girls were here and Kate and I had the whole four days off that Judy and Rachel were here.  By the way Kate just graduated (again) this time with a Bachelor of Nursing.  After taking boards she will have an RN, with a BSN.  She will then out rank her mother.  We didn't exchange presents at Christmas (a new tradition) because everyone is broke and it just adds to the stress.  I did receive gifts from three special people.  My roommate, Kim gave me a beautiful centerpiece for the table, (pictured above)  Susan sent me a bottle of Virginia hard apple cider for me to taste test and Judy sent me the Cake Doctor Bakes Gluten Free.

We spent most of the time indoors playing games, watching TV and of course eating.  As Kate put it so well, "We all lead really busy lives, it is nice to just relax for a few days with no agenda."

We didn't even do much cooking.  What we did cook was from Women of Great Taste.  The baked potato soup which I should quadruple rather than just double.  This year not only was it vegetarian, but gluten free as well.  Turned out great.  The Apple muffins on the other hand Christmas morning were less successful.   Rachel has made some successful gluten free cup cakes, but these didn't want to stick together.  A few days later, I made a pretty good bread pudding out of them, using the Caramel sauce from the apple cake in the book.  On Christmas evening we had the enchiladas complicated by making some of them vegetarian and some of them with gluten free tortillas.  Turned out yummy.  And finally we made the white chili.  We had sent Kate to the store but she didn't understand I wanted 4 cans of Great Northern beans and instead got 4 bags of dried beans.  The dried beans worked when when soaked and cooked and you can never have too many beans in the house. 

I was very sorry to see the kids leave and wish we all live much closer together.  One of my plans for this year is to see more of Kate now that she is no longer in school.

I did not make any New Years resolutions this year and for me that is most unusual.  I think the reason for that is that I am very content with my life.  I am in a much different place this year than last.  I've connecting with people I want to connect with and I actually had a New Year's Eve date.  I am feeling pretty good about myself these days. Yes I want to continue my weight loss and write more, photograph more and connect more with the people I love.   But life is good.  Happy New Years to all.