Start Your Engines ...

 

The first day of a new year started off pretty well. I woke at 6:30 AM and stumbled into the kitchen. Time to throw the bird in the oven. I gave our dinner a good rub down of butter, Season All, pepper, salt, and garlic powder, removed the gizzards and the neck and threw it in the oven. I snuggled back into bed for a bit, listening to a show on my phone, and fulfilling the desire to be by my husband. It was warm in bed and that felt great on such a chilly morning. 

Terry woke up a bit later and asked me if I needed to get up to put the turkey in the oven. Hey, you snooze, you lose, right? I explained I had taken care of it and off he went to enjoy a cigar and to walk the dog. I searched my email to see if there was anything important and of course, there wasn't. But that could be a good thing too, right? It's like receiving no snail mail each day. That just means the bills aren't flowing in either. It's a good thing. 

About three hours into baking the turkey, it was looking great. The aroma wafting through the house was amazing and was making me hungry. 

Mallory and Hayden had an invite to join us for the New Year's Day dinner, but upon texting her, Terry found out she had a really bad headache she could not get rid of. We wished her well and now it was just us. Not complaining at all either, as my husband and I enjoy each other's company. It sure would have been nice to have Mallory and her son come for dinner however. 

We ended up with a turkey, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy from scratch, stuffing with mushrooms, celery, and onion, rolls, corn, and cranberry sauce. Since Mallory doesn't care much for turkey, we grabbed her a ham steak. Coconut cream pie for dessert to top the meal off. Everything came out as I had hoped. We ate until we could not possibly eat more. An evil eye was made at the thawing pie, which means we won't even cut it until later in the night. We are grateful for the good food we ate today, when so many others are going hungry.

Joining the dinner items, there were also tortilla chips and queso cheese dip. I nabbed a couple of them before dinner and that's as much as they have been touched. Terry does not drink hardly at all and I don't drink, so we picked up a bottle of sparkling cider to make a toast to 2024 last night. Terry and me locked arms and toasted to a good year. One that is at least as good as last year, since 2023 was such a great one for us. It was the year we married, the year we created our home, and the year we also came together as a family. We also added Togo to our family and love having the big goofy pup around. He has been a joy. 

Togo has befriended a pot holder lately. I leave it on the couch or on the floor when he comes to the room with us at night to sleep. In the morning, when he comes out to begin his busy day of gathering garbage on our couch, he will lay on that pot holder in a protective position. 

Today I grabbed his pot holder and playfully smacked the side of his face with it, giving him the chance to sink his teeth into it and take back his prized possession. Well, he grabbed it all right, then put both paws over it and dropped his head to cover the center of the kitchen helper. I stuck my hand under his chin and pinched a small corner of the pot holder. He lifted his paw and slapped my arm as hard as he could. I laughed at the gesture, after I got over the shock that the animal had actually smacked me. He was playing, of course, but his attempt at keeping me at bay was adorable. I did deserve the smackdown, I guess. At least it wasn't his pizza box. That would have made it impossible to grab from underneath his legs and chin. 

Before dinner, the Oregon Ducks played Liberty University, hailing from Lynchburg, Virginia. It was a good game, with Liberty scoring the first touchdown. The Ducks kicked their abilities in gear and won with a score of 45 to 6. The Liberty Flames have not lost a game this year until they met up with the Ducks. They looked so defeated, deflated, and down at the end of the game. I felt bad for them somewhat, but enjoyed the fact that the Ducks won the Fiesta Bowl. We also said goodbye to a great quarterback in Bo Nix. Bo played for three years with the Auburn Tigers before transferring to the Oregon Ducks, where he led us to the victory today. It's a sad situation he is leaving, but everyone wishes him the best for his future endeavors. We appreciated the two years he spent on the Oregon team.

So, good game. Good food. Good man to enjoy it with. Awesome fur babies. It's been a great day. Unfortunately, the work week begins again tomorrow. Back to the grind once again, although Terry only works Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Lucky man. I'm working a four day week, like most people. I don't mind, but still ... Must be nice. LOL. 

For the afternoon, we are watching more football. Alabama is playing Michigan and Terry is cheering for 'Bama. I've never been a 'Bama fan, but I don't really care either way. Neither outcome effects me or my life or interests in football. Selfish, I know, but I really have no favored team in that game. 

'Bama lost the game to Michigan, leaving Terry disappointed. Win one, lose one. Not bad. The next game up is Washington versus Texas. It's almost 8:00 PM and we're at halftime for this tied game, at 21 to 21. Eventually someone will win it and that will be it for football for the day. The new year has started off well, I would say. Dinner was awesome, even without family here. Oregon won their game and that's always a good thing. 

Good times. Kit had a good start to a new year as well, finding the box I left in the front room for him satisfying the desire for both a hiding place and a scratching post, so to speak. He spent some time inside peering out upon his kingdom, but not before he dug his nails deeply into the bottom of the box upon entering. 

He spent some time looking around the room to see what trouble he could cause and then hiked the multi-level cat tree and fell asleep on the top platform. Yawning, stretching, and finally settling in for a good, long nap summed up the day. That's how Terry and I felt after eating our turkey dinner. The house was warm. Bellies were full. Tryptophan kicked in and I was dozing once in a while. It was a relaxing, lazy day overall. 

We hope all of you enjoyed the first day of 2024. Hopefully plenty of laughs or relaxing moments were spent in your space today. Did you make any New Year's resolutions? 

I don't make resolutions. Partly because I know I would not keep them just because I said they were going to become part of my life from here on out. I do need to do several things to change my life for the better, such as losing some more weight, stop eating junk food, stop eating carbs or eat very little anyway, and the exercising. Exercise is important and something I tend to do very little of. I sit in the chair working all day and by the time the day is done, so am I. So that happens. 

I would like to continue my meditation too. I have not been in a routine lately, including meditation and exercise for quite a while now but do want to get back into it. Terry? He hasn't mentioned any changes or resolutions he would like to bring to fruition. We are both pretty content in life as it is now, although we can all make changes to create a better life. It's that procrastination word coming to the surface again. That's all my deflection of what I would like to do to change things. Simple procrastination. I even procrastinate about considering procrastinating on those things I want to do, but tend to hold off on making a part of my life. I'm a hot mess. 

Closing this post here is probably a good thing, but not before saying we do hope you all had the best New Year's Day and hoping you have many more great days this year. May you all have abundance, joy, laughter, love, and light in your life from here on out. Hugs to you all and once again, thank you for reading our blog. We love to share things with our friends. Until our next post ...