Sunday, January 03, 2021

The first Sunday in 2021

 Hello 2021. It's a pleasure to welcome the new year and see the end of the last one. 

New year's eve was a bit different for us as we stayed up until midnight.  Not intentionally, we just lost track of time after music and dinner and a movie. Usually we are in bed long before the ringing in of the new year.  
Naturally we stayed in but that wasn't different from the previous decades.  We had long since avoided getting involved with all the traffic and overpriced and over crowded restaurants.

This year we had a nice dinner of  homemade crab cakes and yummy cheese grits. A glass of Veuve Clicquot with dinner,  finished off the bottle listening to music for a bit. Afterwards we watched a movie and then surfed around looking at news, Twitter, etc.
 



Around 11:30 we heard fireworks and gun shots, pretty typical for people to get started early around here.  The rain came in close to midnight but that didn't stop people from shooting and firing off more fireworks.  We felt sorry for dogs around here who get rattled by loud noises because it was nonstop after awhile.

Watching

Die Hard movies - because Christmas movies like Die Hard 1 and 2 are on the agenda.  Also watched Love, Actually but we gave It's a Wonderful Life a skip this year.



Reading

Our reading time  picked up in December and we knocked out quite a few books. For our bookclub in November Doug and I read The Searcher by Tana French. We read it at the same time, a book club of two. It's fun as we progress through the plot and chat about it.

Our book in December was Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith.  We both enjoyed that massive tome and neither of us pegged the killer early on, so that's great.  Suspense.

I finished up Fallen Angel by Jenny O'Brien (book three in the DI Gaby Darin series),  Frozen by Ann Cleeves (A 36 page short story I received free from Amazon) and Harbor Street by Ann Cleeves (book  6 in the Vera Stanhope series).
Doug read Jane Harper,  devouring  her mysteries The Dry, Force of Nature and The Lost Man.  He also read a Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child.

Next month we do the book club thing again when we receive Jane Harper's latest book The Survivor.



Listening and sipping

We listen to CDs and vinyl many evenings. It could be classical, Beatles, Mark Knopfler, Keb Mo' or jazz. Depends on the mood or what we can decide on.  The change in the den is the absence of booze on the bar and an empty wine cooler. We have decided to particpate in Dry January and after that bottle of champagne was gone last Friday, we have been abstaining. This isn't the first time we took a break and gave our heads/livers time to detox.  I'll let you know in February how it went and where we are going from there.


Ending with this little poster I saw at Sandy's blog.  I like it and so here it is.

10 comments:

  1. I always stay home other than going to my daughter's in laws for a bonfire and cookout. People in my neighborhood started fireworks at 7 pm. I think that's just a bit early! I spent the evening comforting my dog and hoping my two cats that were hiding were ok.

    I watched It's A Wonderful Life all the way through for the first time on Christmas Eve. It was very good, lots of tissues needed.

    I shard that posted on FB not long ago. I forget who posted it first.

    I hope 2021 is a much better year for you and Doug...and all of us :)


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    1. Wow, I must have been in a hurry, I meant "shared" not shard and "shared that post" not shared that posted

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  2. Your New Year's Eve sounds just about perfect to me... and not all that different from our own (except the staying up until midnight part, lol!) Things were pretty quiet here, since they don't allow fireworks on the island. Wishing you and Doug all the best for 2021.

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  3. Your celebration sounds great. I hope 2021 is much better than 2020, for you and for the world!

    be well and be safe... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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  4. We usually stay home too except to walk down to the river to watch our towns fireworks at 9pm, but they were cancelled this year so we just watched the Sydney ones on TV.
    I actually just started watching the Vera series on Britbox last night and plan to binge watch the series over the next week or two.

    Wishing you a great reading week and a happy new year 🥳

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  5. We've never been big party-ers, so this year was really no different for us. We like to watch a series, usually, but this year we were satisfied with starting Queen's Gambit.

    Your evenings sound lovely. A Dry January seems like a nice break, too. My husband doesn't drink, and I generally only have an occasional glass of wine, so most months are pretty dry around here.

    Yes. Be Kind. I fully intend to be twice as kind as normal to make up for those who need to see some modeling of Good Adult Behavior.

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  6. Your evening sounds lovely. I enjoy reading about the coziness of your lifestyle. It is a gift, to find contentment in each other and simpler activities. We are similarly happy to just be together, at home. A goal of mine for the year is to focus on contentment with what I have - to accumulate less in all areas.

    Your New Year's Eve/Day celebrations and how you enjoyed them remind me of a quote by Charles Spurgeon. "Begin as you mean to go on, and go on as you began, and let the Lord be all in all to you." I'm not sure of your spiritual leanings, but the spirit of the message applies to us both, I think. Here's hoping our 2021 finds us relaxed and content and enjoying our time with the ones we love.

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  7. Happy New Year! Crab cakes sound yummy. And we always have a quiet New Years too. No going out for us! I do feel bad too for the animals when all those fireworls go off. Good grief, it was in the 30's here and they were still shooting them off!!

    The Survivors looks like a good one!

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  8. We stay at home too. I have no interest in finding a babysitter and trying to get a dinner reservation or being in a big crowd. I was the only one who saw the New Year in here. The other two were fast asleep though I did wake them both up at 11:55. Jason wouldn't have minded sleeping through but I knew Will would. Our cat is terrified of fireworks and there was someone setting them off for awhile well after midnight. I think Comet spent the night behind the washing machine. Happy New Year! Your meal looks wonderful.

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  9. Yumm! I make cheesy shrimp & grits, but have never thought to serve the grits with crab cakes (which I also make). Sounds like a delicious meal! Our NYE was very quiet (no fireworks allowed, thankfully) and we were asleep well before midnight.

    I'm behind in Jane Harper's books, but hope to catch up this year.

    Good luck with Dry January. I gave up wine for 30 days a couple of years ago. I slept a little more soundly at night, but other than that, I didn't notice any changes. I'm sure my liver enjoyed the break, though, although I only have 1 glass of wine a night.

    Great poster/quote!

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