Welcome 2019!

Welcome to 2019! We saw the New Year in quietly at home on Monday night. I made homemade pizza for a late dinner and then opened a bottle of champagne to sip afterwards. We spent most of the evening watching NYE parties and fireworks all around the world on YouTube, and occasionally checking out CNN's coverage of the party at Times Square. I adore Anderson Cooper and he's become essential viewing on NYE around here. 

Yesterday was low key for the most part. My crazy Southern family have instilled the superstition about not washing clothes (or you'll "wash away" a family member in the next 12 months) in me and so all of our laundry was done and put away. I had also cleaned out the refrigerator--all those leftover scraps of Christmas food--and taken out the garbage, swept the floors, and wiped down the bathrooms. So we started out the year with a clean house, which is a nice way to begin, all superstition aside.

Oddly enough, Gregg and I did go up to the school where I work first thing yesterday morning. He maintains a 90 gallon planted aquarium in the library and needed to check on it since we've been on break so long. I have my ID to scan at the door so I was able to let us in, and just as we suspected, the water level of the tank was very low. If it had dropped much lower, the filters would have run dry and that will do them in, so going was a good idea. The hot water wasn't on (I supposed they cut it off during the break to save energy) so we had to stay for longer than we meant to, to give Gregg time to heat water with a submersible heater he carries with him for just such emergencies. We still finished up in about 30 minutes and came back home, and Gregg's mind was at ease about how the tank was faring in the absence of staff for nearly three weeks!

After we got home, I cooked the obligatory Southern New Year's Day meal that's supposed to bring us luck and money:

Black eyed peas (made with the leftover Christmas ham and bone), rice, collard greens, and fried cornmeal cakes. My mom had brought me several Ziplock plastic bags of cooked collards at Christmas to freeze, so I only had to heat those up. She knows how much I like greens, but rarely cook them because they're so much trouble to make for one person. Gregg won't touch greens. Which is fine, because I ate a double portion to cover his share! We can use all the money we can get this year, and greens are supposed to be about money. The ham cooked into the peas is for luck, and the cornbread represents gold. I used Gregg's mom's recipe for hot water fried cornbread cakes, and although they were okay, they weren't nearly as light and crispy as hers. I did my best, though.

Today I'm working on doing some extra house work....my sister in law is coming on Friday to stay over the weekend. Gregg is excited to see her and to have her see the new house, and I'm really happy for him to have some of his family come for a visit. So far over the holiday season he's not seen any of them, and so it will be very good for him to have his sister here. She will be our first visitor in the new year!

Speaking of visitors, I noted yesterday that I have three new followers--hooray! Welcome! Please feel free to jump right in and tell us more about yourself and the place where you live. I look forward to checking out some new blogs in the new year as well!