New Year's Celebration

After spending so much time traveling to Pennsylvania and Ohio over Christmas, we had a very low-key New Year’s Celebration as a family.

On New Year’s Eve, we had a special dinner of country chicken chowder, crackers and chips with hummus, Jalapeno artichoke dip, and English muffin bread.

Photo Credit: Roma.

We used our fireplace for the first time that night! The cat had no idea what to think of it after being accustomed to a glassed-in gas fireplace. The real fire was just a little too unpredictable for her to enjoy.

We ate in the living room and watched a video that we had received as a Christmas gift.

When that was finished, we just relaxed and waited for midnight to roll around.

Around 11:45 p.m., we all gathered in our guest room to watch the ball drop on our TV in there. There was much shouting and celebration at 12:00:00 a.m. J

We all slept in the next morning. Once we kids got up, we gathered in the guest room on the hide-a-bed couch to watch part of the Rose Bowl parade before breakfast.

We ate a delicious breakfast of French Toast Casserole and spent the rest of the day just enjoying our time together!

*Did you do anything special to ring in the New Year? Leave us a comment!*

A Special Birthday Celebration

As I mentioned last week, we had a special birthday celebration for my Abuela. She celebrated a very special birthday recently, and we wanted to make sure that we all enjoyed it together as a family when we were in Ohio over Christmas.

We all gathered at my Uncle’s house for dinner that night. My Abuela didn’t know that we were celebrating her birthday until my Uncle mentioned it before we prayed over the food.

Dinner was catered that night from an Italian restaurant to make it more special. We had chicken marsala, rigatoni, Italian bread with butter, and salad. It was all really good, but I think my favorite was the pasta (it had really good sauce!) and the bread.

And then we surprised her with not one but TWO birthday cakes along with lots of loud singing! J

The cakes were *amazing.* One was a Cassata cake, and the other was a chocolate cake with raspberry filling and chocolate ganache over top. But the only problem was that the pieces were HUGE! I don’t think anyone finished their slices completely.

After that we gave her our main gift: a picture frame with a list inside. The list was ways she has been a blessing to all of us, and we did the same number of blessings as years of her birthday (which we’ll keep a secret. J) It was all really special to her, and we were so glad that we could all celebrate this wonderful occasion together!

Magnificence

Photo by Roma

“Do we truly stumble so blind that we must be affronted with blinding magnificence for our blurry soul-sight to recognize grandeur? The very same surging magnificence that cascades over our every day here. Who has time or eyes to notice?”

Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts

  

~ posted by Betsy ~

Recipe--French Toast Casserole

I’ve hesitated to put this recipe on the blog, because it is such a far cry from healthy. But considering that we only have it once a year for Christmas (or in this year’s case, New Year’s Day) I thought I’d go ahead and post it. A relative made this for us, and gave us the recipe. It’s quite rich, but a delicious treat for special occasions or when guests come over! We love it because most of the prep is done the night before.

 

French Toast Casserole

 

 

1 loaf of sliced cinnamon bread

6 eggs

1 ½ cups milk

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

½ Tablespoon cinnamon

¼ Cup sugar

 

Topping:

 

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

½ cup butter, melted

¾ cups brown sugar

 

Layer bread in a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch pan (bread may overlap.) Mix together eggs, milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and sugar. Pour over bread. Refrigerate overnight. The next morning, mix together topping ingredients and sprinkle over the bread. Bake at 350°F for 40-45 minutes. Makes 8 generous servings. Enjoy!

Christmas in Ohio

December 26^th dawned bright and early for our family. We took quick morning showers and ate a light breakfast so that we could pull out early and try and beat the forecasted blizzard. We actually left my Grandparents house in Pennsylvania 15 minutes EARLY (never happens in our family!) We were so grateful when we arrived safely at my Grandparents' house in Ohio, 10 minutes before snowflakes started to fall.

Josiah was very excited to see the snow, so he wasted no time going out to play after lunch. I would have loved to have gone out, but somehow my coat got left in Texas. Oops! J

That evening my Uncle and his family came over and we had a traditional Puerto Rican Christmas feast. We had bread with butter, fruit, pasteles, pork fricassee, arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), maduros (fried plantains), and homemade punch. And of course, the meal was followed by lots of Christmas cookies!

The little kids were very anxious to open the Christmas gifts as soon as we were done eating. J We made them pause to take a picture, but as you can see the littlest one had a few too many cookies. J

Photo Credit: Mark

Opening gifts is always a happy sort of chaos! I’m not sure what people enjoy more, opening the gifts, or throwing paper all over the place. J

The next day was spent at home relaxing and enjoying the 8 beautiful inches of snow we received the night before. Once indoors, the boys had lots of fun borrowing Dad’s iPad to play games together.

That evening we had my Aunt’s parents over for dinner. We enjoyed the typical American Christmas feast that night, with ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and more. It was really good to visit with them!

The day after that, more company! One of my Abuela’s sisters and her children and grandchildren came over for lunch. It was good to see them all again, as we don’t see each other often.

That evening we had a special birthday celebration at my Uncle’s house, but you’ll have to wait until next week to hear more about that!

We left early on Saturday morning to begin the long drive back to Texas. Sadly, all good things must come to an end. We had received another 2 inches of snow the night before and we drove through snow much of the day. But driving through snow 1 day out of 5 travel days was not bad!

For lunch that day we stopped at a Steak n’ Shake somewhere in Indiana I think (all the states start to run together after awhile!)

Photo Credit: Rubia

We arrived at our hotel in St. Louis safe and sound. After we unpacked, we walked next door to Bob Evans for dinner (yes, we stayed at the same hotel we did driving down to Texas the first time.) The restaurant was very quiet as it was getting late. It was nice to just unwind after a long day.

Josiah’s expression when Dad told him he was paying the bill and he saw the total figure. J I think he would have to work for about a month to afford that!

Next morning, we left very early again and made it home to Texas just before dinner. We unpacked, ordered pizza, and collapsed! We had a great time visiting family, but we were looking forward to a few days off to celebrate a relaxing New Year’s together!

Christmas in Pennsylvania

We arrived in Pennsylvania on December 23^rd after two days of travel. We were thankful to arrive in time for dinner that night so that we could visit with our cousins from Florida.

 

We ate a delicious dinner of sub sandwiches, and we had lots of fun catching up with everyone!

Photo Credit: My cousin T.

The next morning, we all went over to the nursing home to visit Grandma. I think it meant a lot to her to have the whole family there with her.

Nursing homes sometimes need young people to liven things up a bit. J The girls had fun pulling out silly hats to wear around the home.

That afternoon and evening was spent relaxing at the house and watching a movie. We continued our tradition and had pizza for dinner since it was Christmas Eve.

 

On Christmas morning we all headed over to the nursing home again to open gifts with Grandma.

Photo Credit: Mark.

Cousins!

Photo Credit: Josiah.

Our annual family picture. We really appreciated the nurse who was willing to stop and take the photo for us.

This year since both families were coming in from out of town, we kept Christmas dinner easy and ordered the Farmhouse Feast from Bob Evans. It was all really good (even though they accidently gave us turkey instead of ham.)

We went to bed early that night because we were going to try to leave early the next morning to beat the snowstorm on our way to Ohio.

 

To be continued . . .

 

Our Family Christmas

Since we were traveling back up north to visit with family for Christmas, we celebrated as a family early, on the 21^st. Our Christmas was very different this year, partly by choice and partly by necessity. Dad had to work, so we celebrated a little bit in the morning, but mostly in the evening when he got home.

 

Getting ready to open our stockings in the morning. We got some of our favorite candies!

That evening we had our big Christmas dinner. Here the table is all set and ready. It was actually the first time we’ve had a family dinner here with all of us together in the dining room.

We enjoyed cranberry chicken, green beans, edamame with sea salt, artichoke dip with crackers, and garlic mashed potatoes. It was really good!

Since we didn’t have a lot of time to do Christmas baking, we kept dessert simple. We made a birthday cake for Jesus, cracker brittle, and Knick Knack Noels.

Then it was time to open gifts! We didn’t have as many gifts this year by choice; we’re all so thankful for what God has already blessed us with! Afterward, we scurried off to bed because we would be leaving early in the morning to travel north . . .

We left our house around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning headed northeast. We had packed our minivan to the gills as you can tell from this photo. (Can you tell who’s faking in this picture? J)

A sign we saw during one of our stops. J

After driving for about 12 hours, we finally reached our hotel in Illinois. We unpacked our overnight things and then went out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.

The next morning we left again at 7:30 a.m. so that we could arrive in Pennsylvania in time for dinner with our cousins from Florida. It was EXTREMELY cold when we left in the morning! We had to wait for a good 10 minutes for the ice to clear on our windows.

Getting ready to pull out. Only 10 more hours and we’ll be with our family!

To be continued . . .

 

A New Day Has Dawned

“You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new.” Leviticus 26:10

 

 

Praise God for the blessings He poured out in 2012! We cannot wait to see the ways He will continue to work in 2013!

 

 

Happy New Year!