Pizza Face

January 8 was Elvis's birthday. We put on Lilo & Stitch (animated movie).

 

January 9 was my niece's birthday. I mentioned it to the kids. 

Jet wanted to help make pizza with me.

He must have remembered what I said about his cousin's birthday because he insisted on making a face with onions on the pizza then said, "He's excited because it's his birthday tomorrow."

When it was time to cut the pizza, I had to be very careful not to cut the face so we got a little creative with how the pizza was cut. Jet was very good at instructing me where to make the cuts. I love him so much. 

Catching Up January 2025 part 1

We toasted in the New Year at midnight and had New Year's Nachos.

January 2 was National Buffet Day. I made dinner Fend For Yourself that night.

We also finally got out to donate to the Giving Machine right before it closed for the season. We donated "piglets," "art classes," "five visits and meals to a senior," and "empower through play."

We did not get a good family picture like we did in 2022 but that's not the point so... who cares?

 

I got out for morning walks before school started up again.

January 4 National Spaghetti Day. We ate spaghetti. It was also National Trivia Day and Utah's Birthday so we did some Utah trivia. It was also Play Outside Day (which is every first Saturday of the month). A few of us went out to see barn owls (and some other birds but we went specifically for the owls). When we got home we warmed up with hot chocolate.

We celebrated National Bird Day, January 5, a day early with the owl search, although we did eat chicken for dinner on the 5th. We watched The Big Year on Saturday as a family.

 

January 6 was Sherlock Holmes' Birthday. Lucky celebrated by going to "elementary" school the first day back after Christmas Break. I watched a TV show with a Sherlock Holmes character.

It was also National Cuddle Up Day and National Bean Day so you better believe we cuddled up while eating chocolate (which comes from beans). 

 

January 7 was Old Rock Day and National Bobblehead Day so I got out to take pictures of Jr.'s bobblehead with mountains (old rocks). I haven't done that for a few years so it was fun to do it again.

 

January 8 was Elvis' Birthday. We watched Lilo and Stitch.

We started over with "A Season of Family Meal Plans," volume 1, by Jordan Page.

That's enough catch up for now.

Celebrating in January

January 4 was National Spaghetti Day. Besides eating spaghetti, we went around singing a song from the Sandra Boynton album, "Philadelphia Chickens." The Aardvarks have a part in their song where they sing, "We hope you like spaghetti." We sang that part a lot that day.

It was also National Trivia Day. I started watching a movie with characters who were good at trivia. Also that's the day I wrote the little tidbit on my blog about Ralphie from A Christmas Story being in Elf (though it wasn't posted until January 6).

 

January 5 was National Bird Day. Nichole and I thought about going birding with friends but decided not to based on the snow. Instead we had them over to play a game and eat treats. There were some bird cards in the game we played. 

Since it was National Whipped Cream Day, I made more "Fairy in a Jar Layered Gelatin Treats" from The Fablehaven Cookbook but this time I followed directions for layering it in a 9x13 pan. Those were the treats we shared with our friends. 

It was good bonding time before Nichole and the daughter both headed back to college after Christmas Break. 

Jeremy and some of the kids celebrated National Bird Day by watching The Big Year. I went to sleep because that's what I do.

We all had skillet chicken parmigiana for dinner because chickens are birds and with leftover spaghetti from Spaghetti Day.

Jr. Jr. wore his chicken legs socks he got for Christmas on National Bird Day.

 

January 8 was Elvis' birthday. It was also a relative's birthday. We asked him what kind of treats he would approve of so we could have on for FHE treat. One of the things he likes is chocolate chip cookies so that's what we had to honor him on his birthday.

Some Celebrations in January

December 31 and January 1- New Year's Eve and Day
We had nachos. Our friend gave us individual sized sparkling cider bottles so we each got one to toast the new year.

At midnight, Jeremy again had the kids starting the year off on the right foot or left in Jr.'s case.

January 4- National Trivia Day
The younger boys and I told each other bits of trivia that day.

With my time (and arms) filled up with baby, I realized I could celebrate some of the same ways I celebrated when Lucky was a baby- watching movies based on the holidays.

January 6- Sherlock Holmes' Birthday
I watched the Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr.

January 8- Elvis' Birthday
I watched an Elvis movie, "Fun in Acapulco."

January 11- National Step in the Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day 
Jeremy was out birding with the older kids that day so they got a picture for me.

January 13- National Rubber Ducky Day
I watched a YouTube video of Ernie singing that song.

January 14- National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day
We had hot pastrami sandwiches for dinner.

I already blogged about Appreciate a Dragon Day on January 16. 

We didn't celebrate Popeye's birthday on January 17 like we sometimes do. Recently, friends of ours gave us a calendar that lists national holidays. Woohoo. On the calendar are some we already celebrate and some that we don't... yet. One of the holidays listed for January 17 is Hot Buttered Rum Day. Now we're not going to celebrate anything with alcohol but Nichole pointed out that some of the candies we got for Christmas were toffees and some of those toffees had the flavor of butter rum. Ha Ha. Victory. So I handed out butter rum flavored toffees so we could celebrate this holiday that was on the calendar.

Old Elvis Day

January 7 was Old Rock Day.  The kids thought it would be fun to figure out what everything for dinner could be in terms of rocks then it kind of became what you'd find at the seashore.  I love their creativity.
Rolls- old rocks (Jr. said boulders), oranges and clementines- boulders, Red peppers slices- crab legs, carrots- swords (Jr. said chisels), cucumbers- wheels (Jr. said sand dollars, others agreed), apples- canoes (Jr. said arches), stuffing- sand, cottage cheese- pebbles, peaches- beaches, water-water

We also found a new yard bird in our backyard. A chukar.  It's been hanging out with the local covey of quail.  It was a pretty awesome yard bird.  I've only ever seen them before on Antelope Island so it's pretty cool to see them here.

January 8 was Elvis' birthday so I watched a Doctor Who episode that referenced Elvis.  Later Nichole and Jr. watched another Doctor Who episode that referenced Elvis.

Today a few of us got out birding at Farmington Bay. 

There were so many birds.  It was like a circus out there (appropriately, January 9 is the anniversary of the first modern circus). At one point we saw great blue herons, great egrets, bald eagles, and pelicans all together in the same small area.  Big birds.

Of course we had to go to a different section for different big birds- tundra swans.

We also saw little birds like song sparrows and American pipits.

Lucky did really well.  He enjoyed going into the wildlife education center and seeing the stuffed bald eagle.  It was a nice day.

January Catch Up

So you want to know what we did in January that I didn't blog about (which was most of the month)?  O.K.  Let's catch up.

We celebrated:
January 7 was Old Rock Day.  A birding friend (yes, there was still a lot of birding) gave us an old rock- stigmaria.  It's a fossilized root.  Did I mention our birding friend is also a paleontologist?

January 8 was Elvis’ Birthday.  We didn’t have any Elvis movies to watch or songs to listen to.  We watched “The Court Jester” for Family Home Evening.  “Long live the king.”  That movie also had Angela Lansbury in it who played Elvis’ mother in a few of his movies.

January 10 was Peculiar People Day.  We celebrate by existing.
January 16 was Appreciate a Dragon Day.  Lucky watched "How to Train Your Dragon."  Nichole wore a dragon necklace.
January 17 was Popeye's birthday.  We had chicken salad with spinach in it.
January 18 was Winnie-the-Pooh Day.  Lucky and I played with “My Friends, Tigger and Pooh” figurines.  Later, Lucky put together a Winnie-the-Pooh puzzle.  We had a honey themed dinner- honey glazed ham, rolls with butter and honey, salad with honey mustard dressing.  Yumm.

January 19 was Brew a Potion Day.  It was also National Popcorn Day.  We watched “Hocus Pocus” while eating popcorn.

January 20 was Cheese (Lover’s) Day.  I think we had something cheesy for dinner.
January 21 was Squirrel Appreciation Day.  We didn’t celebrate that day but Jeremy got some good squirrel pictures a couple days later.

January 23 was Pie Day.  I made impossible cheeseburger pie for dinner and an apple pie for dessert.  We used our new Pi plate.

January 24 was National Compliment Day.  I tried to be nice to my kids all day.
January 25 was a Room of One’s Own Day.  I did spend some time in my room that day reading and watching a movie, but I wasn’t able to spend as much time as would have been nice since Jeremy was working.  Oh well.  I wasn’t going to tell him not to work just so I could celebrate by being lazy.  Also the DVD player I was using to watch my movie kept goofing up so it wasn't as relaxing because of it.  Oh well again.
January 28 was National Kazoo Day.  Jr. shared his talent.

January 29 was National Corn Chip Day.  We had chili and corn chips.  January 29 was also National Puzzle Day.  The kids watched me play some Monkey Island.

January 31 was Backwards Day.  We had dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner.  The boys were very happy because they also had dessert before their morning meal.  They didn’t think about wearing their clothes backwards this year.  Oh well.  Jr. did walk backwards when coming to meet me after school.

We did other things:

Jr. Jr. got an award for a school project he did.

 Jeremy and Lucky went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point one day.

Lucky and I had a teddy bear picnic.  It was too cold to have it outdoors so we picnicked in the back of the van while Daddy was out birding (told you there was birding).

Jeremy and I went on a date to a dinner with other birders.

We dragged the kids out birding with us a few times. 

We also enjoyed a nice drive around the lake one evening.

We met some new birds- blue jay, Northern pygmy owl, and Pacific wren.  There were some others as well.

We found a friend outside the church building on the way to church one morning.  A red-naped sapsucker. 

It was still there when we got out of church and when we went back for choir practice.  When we got out of choir practice it was still there so I was taking pictures when another birder came up behind me with her camera.  She found out from Jeremy about the sapsucker and it was a new life bird for her.
Over the next few days several other birders came to see the sapsucker.
 
And that was January.