Happy New Year!

December 31st, 2012-January 1st, 2013

After spending the day in the city, we returned home for our annual New Year's Eve celebration.

Spicy Thai Crab Cakes
The recipe came from my Nashville cookbook. It has recipes from many of the city's well-known chefs and restaurants. Simply put, the crab cakes were amazing. I look forward to trying more recipes from that cookbook! 

New Year's Eve Feast
Spicy Thai Crab Cakes with salad and homemade salad dressing, hummus and pita chips, salsa, and buffalo chicken dip

Elissa and Shelby are deep in thought. Creating goals for the new year is hard work!

As the clock struck midnight, we all cheered and celebrated surviving another year, hugged each other, drank sparkling cranberry juice, and ate homemade maple cheesecake with pear-cranberry topping.

After much thought and discussion, we completed our lists of goals for 2013. Here's to another year of following dreams, going on adventures, and learning to be braver, stronger, more compassionate people.



On the first day of 2013, Jennalyn cooked breakfast for us; scrambled eggs, bacon, and sweet potato biscuits.



We decorated birdhouse ornaments for our Christmas/New Year craft project.



The artists

The finished products :)

We bid each other farewell on January 2nd when Jennalyn and Nikki boarded their flights home to Alabama and Maryland. An airport is one of the best places for hellos, yet one of the worst for goodbyes. It always seems so final to watch someone board a plane, knowing they will soon be hundreds or thousands of miles away for who knows how long. But we have plans to meet again, Lord willing, sometime this year. :)

A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye

When this New Year in time shall end

Let it be said I've played the friend,

Have lived and loved and labored here,

And made of it a happy year.

~Edgar Guest