January Shine and Sparkle and a New Year

I can't bear to have Christmas decorations up after the day, so everything gets taken down on the 26th. It doesn't feel sad to me, it feel fresh. The scurry of the holiday is past and I am looking forward to the shine of a bright New Year. Snow, ice, and glitter are my go-to decor for January. Then, even if we don't get any snow, I still have plenty of sparkle and a sweet little village in it's own winter wonderland.

I still had one Christmas party left to host on the 29th, but I had already changed my decorations, so the theme for it was icy- silver, and blue. I am blessed that the dining room is large enough to turn  tables sideways. This was for my hubby's family Christmas and only 24 were able to attend. When I had my moma's side of the family I also had an eight foot table in the kitchen. I had 37 that night! I absolutely adore the napkins, below, that I found at Wal-mart. I made sure to keep back enough to use for my book club party this month ;)

As usual, Squeaky is playing the Snow Queen...

 My sparkly hanging decoration in the window is vintage 1950's. It has a battery operated mechanism at the top that is supposed to make it turn like a disco ball, but I haven't been able to make it work yet. The nativity wasn't left out of the Christmas packing by accident. We celebrate Epiphany, when the wise men were supposed to have found the baby Jesus. It helps to keep us remembering Christmas after the day is past.

The living room is hard to photograph. It has a huge window, and it either bleaches everything out or, if I put down the shades, it is so dark it's like a cave. Anyhoo- the greenery is real and gets put up for Christmas and is accented with branches of red berries. In January it gets some branches of fake snow. The greenery just dries naturally and looks great for two months. Of course, when you go to take it down to decorate for Valentine's Day the branches spontaneously explode everywhere like an angry green porcupine. Oh well.

 Here is my beloved and much used wood stove! It is our sole winter heat and my chair is to the right, nearest the heat. You can see the giant stack of French cookbooks that sit beside it. Everyone asks about the tiny door. It is the woodbox, and is filled from the outside to help keep from tracking bark all through the house. In the summer the boys used it as a playhouse, with the added benefit that they could escape through the outside door without being seen!

Below is my Christmas present from my Pop and my three sons. They went to an auction and this Alaskan timber wolf from the 1960's went up for sale. They know I have a thing about wolves (I had recurring nightmares throughout my childhood!) and just knew it was the perfect gift for me. I do adore it because they all chipped in to buy it because "moma had to have it!" But is just just so darn LARGE and SCARY...when I put the hat on him I felt better. Then it looked like he was yelling Happy New Year, instead of that he wanted to eat me. Oh dear... 
Behind him is a stack of games that I put out. On New Year's Eve we play games until midnight, so we need quite a few of them!

 Here is the tray with pretty glasses all ready for our midnight toast. When the hour strikes all the couples smooch and we drink. We do it with sparkling grape juice and everyone has to clink every single person's glass for luck. One of the best compliments I ever had was from my mother-in-law. When Duane and I got married and I started having her over for celebrations, she said that she had never known folks who could have so much fun without any alcohol. To me that is high praise indeed!

Our box of party hats and horns are awaiting use....

Below is an old picture, but as usual, I didn't get any pictures of the table before we ate this year. For New Year's Eve we do something special that only happens once a year. We fondue. We began this when I was a child and my Grandma Tommy gave moma and my aunt fondue pots. Now my little family has grown to where we have three pots of oil to cook pork, chicken, shrimp, and crappie. I make a beer batter that we dip most of that in, plus fresh mushrooms to fry. Then we have two pots of a thick cheese sauce I make, and we dip mushrooms, cauliflower, and broccoli. Everyone has bamboo skewers that I color code with markers so that folks can keep from eating other people's food. This is definitely not fast food, but it sure is fun. Not that you could tell from the picture, I have some cranky picture takers....

After all the china and silver and tablecloths of Christmas, New Year's is a breeze. We clear off the table, throw away the newspaper, and we are ready to start games. Here the hubby is trying his hand at Jenga.

 About ten'o'clock we are all hungry again. Now I make a chocolate fondue and we all have our own pots. There is a motley assortment of dipping items: mandarin oranges, bananas, strawberries, pretzels, maraschino cherries, marshmallows... Savvy even brought a box of Twinkies for dipping! Then the table is cleared again, and pistachios in the shell are put out for snacking and a bit of salty after all the sweet. Back to the games!

 Here is Will with a new guest to our festivities, his sweetheart, Ms Belle. We are at the final countdown. Midnight strikes, we toast, and people stagger away to bed...

On New Year's day we celebrate at my Moma and Pop's, right down the road. They both love to set a beautiful table. (I have my Grandma Tommy and them for inspiration!) Below is last year's table. The art glass goblets are ones that my Pop collects. He has a gorgeous assortment, and it is even more special that we get to drink out of them.

Below is this year. We always have a huge ham at lunch for Christmas day. Mom saves what is left and slices it for New Year's Day. Then she puts the meaty bone in a big pot filled with black-eyed peas that my Pop grows and they put up. We always have this with cornbread and slaw. This year Moma made the slaw with sliced pickled okra and a creamy dill dressing. I am not a big slaw lover, but it was incredible! My youngest is like me when I was his age, he does not like the taste of peas. But he has to have his good luck, so he swallows five black-eyes whole, like pills, and everything is fine! And so we have our good luck for the year.

 Did you know that southerners traditionally eat turkey for Thanksgiving because the bird scratches backwards? It signifies looking back and thinking over the old year with Thanksgiving. But at the New Year pork is the meat, because a hog roots forward, always looking ahead. The black eyes are a big part of southern tradition. Some say it is because the the beans look like little coins and are considered lucky. But more realistic reason is because when the Yankees came through the south, burning and salting fields during the Civil War, they often left the fields of black eyes. This is because in the north they were consider only worthy to be cattle fodder. There was great reason during those hard times to find a pot of black-eyed peas the best kind of luck, the kind that sustained body and soul. 

Whatever your traditions, I hope you were able to ring in the New Year with hope and joy for a fresh beginning. There are 365 days laying before you like a treasure chest filled with blank slates, just waiting for you to decide how to fill them. May God bless and keep you as you step boldly into 2019!