What?

 

National Peanut Butter Day 2021

Sunday, January 24, was National Peanut Butter Day. So what did I suggest every time someone said they were hungry? Something with peanut butter. People ate tortillas with peanut butter, peanut butter sandwiches, etc. The kids asked for Chuckles but I never got around to making that (I forgot). Jr. did make peanut butter cookies, though. Thanks, Jr.

P.S. We had Chuckles for After School Snack the next day.

Pie Day 2021

January 23 is National Pie Day. We also celebrate Pi Day on March 14. Any excuse for pie, right? I like pie so we had impossible cheeseburger pie and apple pie to celebrate Pie Day this year. Yummm.

It was also National Handwriting Day so Nichole got out her calligraphy stuff again for a little bit at the end of the day.

Itsa Gooooood!

I love my brother, Paco. In a lot of ways growing up I wanted to be like him, to do things he was doing. I got into drama because he was doing drama. I learned some balloon animals because he was learning balloon animals. I got into juggling because he was juggling. I'm sure glad I did that because I got to know my husband through a juggling club in college. I've mentioned before that I've videoed myself juggling in different places because I copied my brother with that.

My brother and I definitely have differences and I don't follow him in everything (I don't build skateboards or walking sticks for example). My brother is fun, though, and my kids and my husband also think he is fun. Since we don't see him in person very often, living in different states, we enjoy watching "Paco videos." Every year he puts up a New Year's video on YouTube and we get a kick out of watching those as a family. He has a lot of other random videos and we get a kick out of those, too. Sometimes we even celebrate Paco's birthday... two states away. Sometimes we eat cake, sometimes we put together a little video for him. This year I contacted him while I was working on the menu plan and asked what he would suggest we eat for a Paco-themed birthday dinner. He suggested eating a "Confuso" while wearing fake mustaches. Of course! I told the kids the idea and Jr. Jr. told me we should also get cans of lemonade to "shake gently before opening."

So that's what we did. I spent the day before and the day of preparing ingredients and on Paco's birthday, we followed his instructions to assemble the "Confuso." Then we turned on the "Shake Gently" video and copied Paco's movements while shaking our lemonade.

It was a fun evening and all the kids actually ate the food. "Itsa gooooood!"

I love my brother. It's fun to celebrate his birthday since he is such a fun person.

Celebrating with Food Again

Wednesday, January 20, was Penguin Awareness Day. We usually do more to celebrate but didn't this year. We just ate fish sticks and there was just a little talk about penguins.

Thursday, January 21, was National Granola Bar Day. The kids ate granola bars for after school snack.

Friday, January 22, was Blonde Brownie Day. I made blondies for my family.

Since January 22 is also National Polka Dot Day, the kids and I watched the episode of Animaniacs based on the Marx Brothers movie, Duck Soup. In "King Yacko," there is a running joke with Dot bringing out outfits that all have polka dots on them. The characters look and say, "Polka dot?" Dot then says, "If you insist," and begins to polka with that character.

My dad pointed out to me that the 20th was a palindrome day. 1-20-2021. The kids pointed out that the next several day were palindrome days as well. 1-21-21. 1-22-21. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Popcorn and Potions

Jr. Jr. and I took some bonding time while doing service. For Brew a Potion Day, January 19, we made hot chocolate for the kids and me while we chatted about tunnel dragons. He told me lots of interesting things about these fantasy creatures that live underground. Very interesting. Did you know they eat worms but sometimes they come to the surface to eat humans as a snack? They also don't like iron and they are solitary creatures except they call out when they find iron so others join to destroy the iron in a frenzy. They do like gold, though.
While Jr. Jr. and I made the hot chocolate, Jr. made popcorn for everyone to celebrate National Popcorn Day.

Then the kids and I sat down to play a card game while drinking our hot chocolate and eating our popcorn.
 

Ah, bonding time.

Winnie-the-Pooh Day 2021

This year for Winnie-the-Pooh Day on January 18, I tried out some new foods with honey in them.

Ginger Ale Ham from my slow cooker cookbook and German Brown Bread from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner and salad with honey mustard dressing (which isn't something new but the other two were).

We only mentioned Winnie-the-Pooh this year along with the food. We didn't play any games or with any toys or watch any Winnie-the-Pooh themed movies or shows. Oh well.

Catch of the Day

Appreciate a Dragon Day 2021

For Appreciate a Dragon Day on Saturday, January 16, Nichole decided to have her dragon help out with things at home while Jeremy and I ran errands and tried to fix the car. It should have been as simple as replacing the battery but instead it took a lot of prayers and the next door neighbor who came over to see what we had been working on for hours and used his knowledge to fix the last bit for us. Thank you, neighbor. You were a huge blessing.

The kids worked on cleaning and homework (with the dragon) and watched some dragon-themed movies.

Earlier in the day, Jet and I took Jeremy to pick up his prize for reaching Gold for the UCB birding challenge for 2020. I got to chat with one of the birders from a distance while Jeremy was getting his certificate and binoculars harness. The Thursday before we had a Zoom Meeting with the club to talk about birding in 2020. It was so nice to see those birders and I was able to have all the kids there since we watched from home (and Jr. Jr. and Lucky danced around at home).

January 16 was also National Fig Newton Day but as things were so crazy, we forgot to eat our fig bars so we celebrated Fig Newton Day (Observed) the next day by eating them after our spinach lasagna that we had to celebrate Popeye's Birthday on Sunday, January 17.

Celebrating with the Menu Plan

O.K. Menu plan based on celebrations. I don't have a lot of pictures.

Monday, January 11, was National Milk Day. We had chocolate milk with our dinner.

Wednesday, January 13, was Korean American Day. I tried a new recipe from Six Sisters' Stuff that my sister recommended. Korean Beef and Rice. 

It called for soy sauce and when I pulled the soy sauce out to use it, I realized I didn't have enough. The reason? I used most of it to make Chex Mix for New Year's. Sigh. Luckily, Jeremy was out shopping and was able to pick some more up. Sigh. The kids all liked it and some commented that it tasted kind of like that Chex Mix. It was the soy sauce and brown sugar, I'm sure.

January 13 was also Peach Melba Day. I didn't make peach melba but I made peach cobbler. Mmmmmm.

Thursday, January 14, was Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day. Jr. made hot pastrami sandwiches for us. Thanks, Jr.

Friday, January 15, was National Bagel Day. We made breakfast sandwiches on bagels. Yummm.

Peculiar Sunday Supper

Sunday, January 10 was Peculiar People Day. It was also National Sunday Supper Day. I had my peculiar people make supper that day.

Nichole made maple-cornmeal drop biscuits from our Little Women Cookbook. Thanks, Orem Library. She and I made bacon gravy to go with it. Jr. helped Lucky steam some broccoli. Jr. made peanut brittle. We may have had some other things but I can't remember.

Old Rock Day 2021

January 7 was Old Rock Day. It was also National Bobblehead Day. To celebrate, Jet and I went for a drive since the weather was beautiful that day. We invited Jr.'s bobblehead along (with permission from Jr.) and took pictures of it with old rocks- hills and mountains. Of course I got distracted by birds for a bit. It was a nice drive.

And... the moon is an old rock.

How Did We Celebrate?

Let's see if I can remember how we celebrated on January 6. First of all, Sherlock Holmes' Birthday. I was going to watch a Sherlock Holmes movie but didn't so it's the thought that counts, right?

Next, National Bean Day. We had refried beans in some form, either as a side dish or in burritos. Who knows?

Then, National Cuddle Up Day. There were cuddles that day.

And, National Technology Day. We used technology.

Last, National Shortbread Day. I tried Funfetti Shortbread Bites, another recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. Thanks again, Mel. Those shortbread bites were yummy. The boys helped make them. Yumm.

Whipped Cream Day

January 5 was National Whipped Cream Day. I thought it would be nice if we all got hot chocolate with whipped cream on top. 

 

I decided to do something else with the whipped cream as well. The children approved.

 

A Crazy Week

Man, it has been a crazy week. My phone died. The car died. Jeremy's phone got close to dying but he managed to get a new phone before losing everything on it like I did with mine. Schedules changed. We had to deal with a rash on one of the kids. I'm still too tired every night to blog. That's why I have a lot of catching up to do. We've had to deal with plenty of other things and will continue to deal with more.

You know the saying, "When it rains, it pours"? We've definitely felt that with things lately. This happens then this happens then this happens, etc. etc. etc. So much stress. But you know what? The saying also applies to blessings. "When it rains, it pours." Prayers have been answered in amazing ways. Heavenly Father has helped me to get ideas (not my own) with how to deal with certain situations. He's sent angels (neighbors and friends) to help us. I have a beautiful family and I love each member. We have a home to live in and food to eat. The older kids have been so helpful with the baby so I can deal with other things. Sure, there are plenty of stresses I'm dealing with right now (and lots of tears) and I'm not going to mention all of them but there are sooooooo many more blessings and I'm not going to mention all of those either.

Soooooo... I've got to do some catching up on my blog. You already know about some of the things we've been dealing with. I lost some pictures and didn't take pictures of all of our celebrating so I'm going to go back to lumping some together when I blog. I'm still trying to get into a routine with our new schedules so who knows how that will affect blogging. If you need you can go back to 2020 where I beat my record for amount of blog posts published in a year. Hooray! But don't worry. I'm sure I'll have plenty to say this year. Especially since Jeremy's parents sent us a new National Day calendar for this year. Thanks, Mom and Dad. 

That added to our Calendar of Celebration, which has other reasons to celebrate (like when Willy Wonka's Factory opened to the five golden ticket holders on February 1), we'll be celebrating plenty and I will share how we do some of that celebrating. Enjoy.

 

I'd love to hear how you are celebrating this year. Please share with me. If you need ideas for a certain holiday, do a search on my blog and there are a LOT of holidays we've celebrated. Some are as simple as watching a Winnie-the-Pooh movie on January 18, Winnie-the-Pooh Day. Some are more elaborate like running around like witches with cauldrons and broomsticks and concocting beverages and watching witch themed movies for Brew a Potion Day, January 19. But please, tell me how you celebrate.