More Celebrating in January

January 16 was Fig Newton Day. We ate fig newtons. Do you remember the commercial way back that said, "It's not a cookie. It's a newton"? I looked at the packaging for fig newtons and it calls them cookies. Ha.

It was also Appreciate a Dragon Day. Dad did some writing about dragons.

January 17 was Museum Selfie Day. Jeremy had some stuff to do at the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point so he made sure to celebrate the holiday while there.

It was also Popeye Day. I sang Popeye cartoon theme music over and over to the kids while we ate Popeye spinach.

It was also Hot Heads Chili Day. Let me tell you how I did some shelf cooking those two days, following "A Season of Family Meal Plans" volume 1.

I was thinking of making some spicy chili on Hot Heads Chili Day and the day before I was going to make lasagna soup with garlic bruschetta. Well, Jr. wasn't feeling the greatest that first day and said Ogre Stew sounded good to him. Ogre Stew is kind of like a white bean chili and it was a bit spicy so we had it for Hot Heads Chili Day Observed. 

The garlic bruschetta was supposed to use fresh tomatoes but we were out so I took a can of diced tomatoes, added the other ingredients, and cooked them up to make a sauce. Then I took my homemade baguettes (The Food Nanny recipe), cut them in rounds, and made them into garlic bread to put the sauce on top. It worked.

So the next day I made the lasagna soup to go with spinach salad. I also made cornbread muffins which were suggested in the book but I used a recipe I always use instead of the one from the book. That's another thing about shelf cooking. If I have a tried and true recipe why look for something else?

 

Lucky very nicely took pictures then edited them to make me green like spinach.

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.