New Year Randomness and Loving Big

I’m warning you ahead of time, this post will be all over the place. But this way I can catch you up and we can dive in to the new year.

Remember how on New Year’s Eve I said that our motto for 2012 was going to be to love, and love big? 2012 arrived with love all around.

My sister-in-law got engaged New Year’s Eve (congrats again, Tia!). How awesome is that? And what a fun way to kick off the new year.

And Mystic said those three little but oh so important words to me. Technically it was 3 am on New Year’s Day, but no matter. We’ve been dating awhile now, and I knew how he felt, and we all know that actions are sometimes better than words. But these words are good to hear too. Um, yeah, now I just need to say it back. I totally can. But I didn’t. I suck at that. And I also hate the reactiveness of saying it right back in response to him. I’m not sure he’s noticed that I didn’t say it. But I sure as heck hope he feels it.

Now for randomness… pure and unadulterated brain dump, by way of photos.

For every New Year’s Eve for the past, oh 15+ years, I’ve done a seafood feast. My how I love that. This year, it was time for a new tradition. I adore Indian food. Like love it, love it, love it. Mystic had never had it before. To me, that seemed like the perfect time to introduce him to it. I ordered up all my favorites, and made use of an embarassingly old gift certificate, and feasted we did.

I’ll just have to find another occasion for a seafood feast. And believe me, I will. The Neighbor Wife and I started reminiscing about all the dishes we’ve had for previous years’ feasts … that trip down memory lane was almost enough to make me change my mind. Almost, but not quite.

I spotted this store window around the corner from Penzey’s on our trip last week and snapped a picture. I thought my Mom would get a kick out of it. And speaking of dogs…

Their dog, Beauregard, in all his blinged out finery.

My parents host New Year’s Day, and this year my Mom went with an Italian theme. So it seems only appropriate that I bring the Italian Rainbow Cake, no? I used Joanne’s recipe for inspiration, smearing jam and preserves in between the layers, and using the chocolate ganache on the top. Delish, and just might have a permanent place in the New Year’s Day table line-up.

Claire’s Pepperoni Pie, another tradition. Madeline had two slices of it. And then mostly nothing else until dessert.

My Mom read somewhere that not only is it good luck to have black-eyed peas on New Year’s, which we, of course, did, but also lentils. And so we did. I’ll get the recipe for this one and write about it later – good stuff, for sure.

Mini Cherry Cheesecakes.

Every year, my Mom passes around a bowl with scratch-off tickets for us to try our luck. This year, the winnings totaled $32, which might actually be the record so far. But sadly, the $30k prize is still looming.

Our little noisemakers.

Yesterday brought a little outing to Trader Joe’s. I don’t know what it is about that store, but my kids rarely make it out of there without a stern talking to. I can spend hours dragging them all over creation, but five minutes in there and I’m about ready to walk out. And I have before.

This donut is pure evil. E-v-i-l.

My friend Patrizia is one of those moms who have coloring books and crayons in her purse. Me? Not so much. I’ll have a weird assortment of other things you might need, but never the usual suspects.

Please ignore the disaster that is her playroom and focus on my budding musician. How cute is she, quietly strumming away on her guitar?