Happy New Year! This will be our first Friday sharing five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. I missed posting a blog on New Year’s Day, sorry!! A combination of doing a bunch of stuff, and an annoyed stomach, got in my way. In good news though, early New Years Morning I took some Imodium and fully resolved my stomach problems so I could go on with my day. I really thought it was some kind of stomach virus so I lucked out!
2. New Year’s Day we had Youngest, his wife and mother in law over for an early dinner. It was a last minute plan as I had to make sure Wizard was better. He is…although the cough will come and go for a while as they do. But otherwise, he’s fully recovered and I worry too much about him, LOL.
3. For New Year’s Day dinner, I made ribs and two kinds of marinated chicken, roasted potatoes and green beans. I think people liked it? I mean they’re not going to tell me my food sucks, right? Anyway, it’s a lot of fun when people can sit at the bar while I cook. They are there to help when I need it, and also keep me company while enjoying wine, soft drinks and appetizers. My daughter in law was teasing me that it was like being at a cooking lesson. I’ve said this many times, I’m okay but not a good cook, so I thought that was funny. However I enjoy it, so its all good.
4. I tried a new recipe out of a new cookbook (I fully confess, I have a problem buying cookbooks lately!). The cookbook is “Downshiftology Healthy Meal Prep” (Downshiftology is a food blog that focuses on healthy gluten free options). I made the Chocolate Espresso Shortbread Bars, although I tweaked the ingredients to what I had on hand and what I prefer. I was really happy with the way they came out!
5. I’m happy the holidays are over, and ready to take on 2025! I don’t do resolutions, but I do like to think about goals for the year. My top is always showing up for the family I love, hanging with grandkids and this year, I’d like to really appreciate Maggie. She’s getting older, and while I expect she has many years let, there’s no guarantee and I don’t want to look back one day and think I didn’t appreciate her enough. I do have other goals, but no one wants to read that list I will say one involves a new laptop (probably a 2in1 laptop tablet) and see how I do working on that. But that’s not something I’m ready to invest in just yet.

So that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope you all have a great first weekend of 2025 and a fantastic year ahead!