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."

Rubber Ducky, You're the One... But so are Dinosaurs

One day, Jet decided to "help" one of his brothers who was washing dishes. He came back to my room with a rubber ducky covered in suds. I figured in order to keep him from causing too much trouble to his brother but also to let him continue with what he was doing, I'd make him his own "bath" for the rubber duckies. We just used a mixing bowl with water and dish soap (and a towel underneath- very important) and let the rubber duckies take a bath. We of course sang the "Rubber Ducky" song. 

We decided to let some dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures join in the fun. 

After a while, Jet told me he needed a "handy fishing pole," which is something Mickey Mouse uses in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

I just threw something together with a bamboo skewer and yarn taped to it. It had a loop on the end that he could put around some of the creatures to lift them. He was content with that.

Ah, simple fun.

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.

National Rubber Ducky Day 2016

We spent the last several days putting together a video for YouTube celebrating National Rubber Ducky Day on January 13.  In the video, we go on a search for "the elusive rubber ducky," but what do we find?  All sorts of other birds.  I took videos we had taken in the past (Winterish videos since some birds are around only in the Summer) and the other day I took Lucky and Jr. Jr. out to some places to record them, especially Jr. Jr. saying, "Is that a rubber ducky?  Is that a rubber ducky?" and recorded them saying, "No, that's a western scrub-jay" or "that's a Cooper's hawk."  I even got some more videos of birds that day.  I put them together in a cute little video, "Looking for the Elusive Rubber Ducky," and posted it this morning.
Then while Jr. and Nichole were in school, Jeremy and I took the younger boys out bird watching.  We went to a new spot for us and saw some new to us birds (some we'd seen before but hadn't got pictures).  We also saw some old familiar friends such as northern flickers.

Here are some of the friends we saw today.

 Tundra Swans

 Northern Shovelers

 Common Goldeneye

 Pied-billed Grebe

 Ruddy Ducks

 American Coots

Jeremy and I laughed about how it was a good thing I got my video up this morning because we got a lot more videos today and it would have taken longer to add so much.  Even though we did get better videos of American coots today.

Rubber Ducky Friend

January 13 is National Rubber Ducky Day.  To celebrate, we invited a friend to come play with us at the mall.

And look what Jeremy spotted as we were walking along.  I had to get a picture of the kids with the sign.

We had some fun.