New Year's Day

In Texas and other parts of the south, it is a tradition to eat black eyed peas on New Year's Day. It is supposed to bring good luck and prosperity in the new year. The Whitleys introduced Austin to this dish and he wanted to share it with us. According to Austin, they are quite nasty if you just warm them up and eat them plain. He wanted me to smell them when he opened the can and they do smell like wet dog. Ughh!! But if you add bacon and onions and serve it over rice, Austin says they aren't bad at all. We all know that bacon makes anything good!

Austin is ready to serve them up!

A close up. Kind of reminds me of Campbells Bean with Bacon soup.

Britta was first to try them. I love the look on her face. Anticipation!

She immediately choked and gagged. Oh no! The rest of us were really leery after that.

Ryan was next. He made sure he had lots of bacon on his spoon.

Delwyn, Landon, and I didn't think they were that bad. Austin had talked them up so much, we were prepared for much worse. I wouldn't want to eat them very often, but I can do once a year, especially if they bring good luck, and I only had about 3 bites. It made for a fun twist on the meal anyway. We had chicken tacos and rice.

Maddie loved the bacon!

Happy New Year! The kids always love quesadillas and fruit.

Claire wanted to have her picture taken with Aunt Britta. Cuties!

The girls love to color, especially with colored pencils, even though they are using crayons in this picture.

We are a musical family, so there is always some singing around the piano. I love to hear them!

We didn't do any chiming in the month of December, our Sundays went by so fast, so we did it tonight. We started out with Delwyn pointing to the numbers, but he got fired and Britta took over. It's a hard job to point at the right pace and it's pretty easy to lose your spot if you look up at the chimers.

Our first couple of tries were pretty rough, but then we got the hang of it. 

Claire and Millie caught on pretty fast and did a good job.

  

Our favorite songs were "Frosty the Snowman" and "O Holy Night."  

A great first day of 2020! I remember when Ryan was born and we figured out that he would graduate in 2020. It sounded so far away and had such a magical sound to it, and now it's here!! How did it come so fast??  Here's looking to a year filled with exciting events and memories!