Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year. I know it's been quite some time since I have updated my blog, but it's been a busy time. Thanksgiving, Christmas, trying to figure out summer vacation for this year, plus I've been working many hours overtime.

Chris stayed with us for Thanksgiving, and he helped his dad cook the turkey - we had it deep-fried, which may not be healthy, but it's much quicker than traditional and it is so juicy and flavorful. Chris also made the best sweet potato dish I've ever had - it was a Bobby Flay recipe from The Food Network. I tried a baked cranberry sauce recipe with bourbon (also a Bobby Flay recipe), and it was excellent. I also made the usual bourbon smashed sweet potatoes, (a Rachel Ray recipe) which are pretty good as well, plus I made an Alton Brown recipe, chipotle smashed sweet potatoes, this year for the first time. Those were delicious as well. I've decided you can never have too many sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner -- or for Christmas dinner either, as we made the same dishes then too. The kids stayed with us through Christmas Eve, then their mother picked them up early Christmas morning for the rest of their school vacation, so we had our Christmas on Christmas Eve.

As for summer vaction, we are thinking either camping for a few days again or heading to Disneyland for a change this summer. I haven't decided yet, I'm trying to find a way to make a trip for five to Disneyland as inexpensive as possible but still fun. If we choose camping again, I only want to go for a few days, because it can get quite expensive, plus very tiring. :-)

NOW to the overtime at work: we had someone quit a few weeks ago without notice (that I am aware of), and so we've been left shorthanded. In addition, two people were scheduled for vacation at the same time, and so we were left REALLY shorthanded then. So I've been working ten to twelve hour days at work doing someone else's job while trying to keep up on at least parts of my regular job. Very stressful right now, but we'll see how things go.

I guess that is the gist of it. I am looking forward to summer when school is out and we can go on vacation and take a couple of trips and visit all my family. I'm really looking forward to seeing Valerie and getting to meet the new baby after he is born. :-)