Catching Up January 2025 part 2

In 2024 both Nichole and Lucky got out for a lot of birding with us, so Jeremy and I took them to the Golden Corral for the annual Utah County Birders dinner there in January 2025. Both Jeremy and I earned Bronze level for the 2024 challenge so we each picked a pair of earrings. Jeremy gave his to Nichole and I kept mine- owls.

Another day, Jeremy, Nichole, and I went to the kickoff event for Orem Library's 2025 Adult Reading Challenge.

January 12 was National Sunday Supper Day and National Curried Chicken Day so for Sunday supper, we had coconut curry chicken and some sort of rice from "A Season of Family Meal Plans," and bread.

We ate dinner early enough that we were able to go over to our friend's for banana splits. 

I love these gals. One is my ministering sister and one Jeremy ministers to and it just so happens that we're already friends.

January 13 was National Rubber Ducky Day. There were a lot of rubber duckies in our home that wanted to be involved in things.

That night, Orem Library had a Winnie-the-Pooh Day event (Winnie-the-Pooh Day is on January 18). Jet, Lucky, Jr. Jr., and I went.

It was definitely catered toward Jet's age group with crafts and activities and stories.

January 14 was Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day. Some of the family members look forward to grilled pastrami and cheese sandwiches for this holiday. We enjoyed them.

January 15 was National Bagel Day. I didn't think we had bagels until I was looking through my pictures to do this post. 

Me: Wait. We had bagels on National Bagel Day?

Jeremy: Yeah. Didn't you make some?

Me (bewildered): Yes, I did.

We had toasted bagels and hot chocolate with fried rice. Mmmm.

 

January 16 was Appreciate a Dragon Day. Nichole usually draws pictures of dragons that day but she was working on another project so she appreciated a dragon she already had.

 

January 17 was Hot Heads Chili Day. We made chili. 

January 18, besides being Winnie-the-Pooh Day, was National Thesaurus Day. We talked about dinosaur related stuff for "The Saurus Day."

At Home Potluck

We celebrated National Sunday Supper Day with an at-home potluck again.

Since January 14 was Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day, that's what Jr. contributed. Jeremy contributed pasta and sauteed onions. I contributed apples. Lucky contributed colored flavored sugar water. For dessert, Jr. Jr. had hot chocolate with peppermint ice cream to put in it.

Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day 2023

I wasn't going to do hot pastrami sandwiches for Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day this year but when I mentioned it was coming up on January 14, Jr. got excited. "I love hot pastrami sandwiches." Well, you know I couldn't disappoint him so I bought pastrami when I went to the store and we had hot pastrami sandwiches for that holiday.

It's amazing how our kids will latch onto certain traditions that I personally could skip some years but if they want them...

Jeremy and I talk about how it might be like when our children move out and are living with roommates. "What? Your family doesn't celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day? I thought everyone did." We've been celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day for so many years. Our traditions for celebrating it have changed over the years but it's a great holiday to celebrate. But really, not everyone celebrates it.

Do you?

A Long Date

The kids made grilled pastrami sandwiches and tomato soup for National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day on January 14. I was burned out.

Later Jeremy showed up with roses and Butterfingers for me so we could have an at-home date and watch a movie. What a sweetie.

The next morning we continued our date. We weren't planning on it, it just worked out that way. We left the kids at home and met up with another birder at a park in Alpine to look for a certain bird. We didn't find that bird but it was nice to get out and see what we did see. And it was so nice to see one of our birding friends.

It was nice to stretch out our date time to two days. And it was nice of Jeremy to wear his cold weather hat for National Hat Day on January 15.

 

Later, Jr., Nichole, and I made breakfast sandwiches with bagels for dinner to celebrate National Bagel Day on January 15.

Then I went to bed while the others stayed up to watch one of Night at the Museum movies. They got a picture at the very end of the movie for Museum Selfie Day.

We know how to celebrate creatively.

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.

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.

I Am a Beautiful Butterfly

January 14 is National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day.  We had hot pastrami sandwiches for dinner but we didn't take pictures.  What we did take pictures of was our work in progress.
This weekend is the grand opening of the Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Point.  We're making giant balloon bugs to hang inside the building.
Today we worked on a blue morpho butterfly.

Lucky was such a big helper.  It was a long day yet he helped with some of the twisting, he worked on some activity pages, watched a little "Dino Dan: Trek's Adventures," played a little on an electronic game, and stayed with us instead of wandering off.  Later Jeremy was able to take us around to see some of the exhibits.  So cool.  I'm looking forward to coming as a family later to see more.  Jr. and Jr. Jr. have already visited with their school for a field trip.

Cheeseball and Pastrami

My friends and I decided to do Girls' Night for Friday the 13th and watch a scary movie- well, suspenseful movie.  An Alfred Hitchcock movie.  I thought it would be fun to bring cheeseball and crackers and you know I like making shaped cheeseballs (I've made death star cheeseball more than once, for example).  So I couldn't resist when I thought about Alfred Hitchcock's famous profile.

My friends got a kick out of the cheeseball and we had so much fun talking that we never even got around to watching the movie.

Saturday the 14th is National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day.  We ate them like we usually do for the holiday.  It was a busy day so it's great we had something simple on the menu plan.

Why I Love My Husband

This is why I love my husband.  For National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day, January 14, I was making hot pastrami sandwiches while Jeremy went to get the kids from school.  In the middle of making them I grabbed the camera so I could get pictures of some of the finished sandwiches while others were cooking.

Later, I was in a hurry getting kids ready and fed and trying to eat sandwiches myself, when along comes my wonderful husband with the camera and takes some pictures to make sure I had some for a blog post about this holiday.

That's why I love my husband.  This is not the first time he's taken pictures for me to use in a blog post, either.  He is thoughtful.