December 31, 2022
We generally celebrate the New York ball drop, rather than wait for the strike of midnight in AZ. I'd like to say it's just because NYC is my husband's favorite place on earth, but the truth is that we have old spirits when it comes to our sleep cycles...we both tend to head to bed around 8-9pm, and start our day at 4am. So, staying up to midnight is a challenge and we generally just don't want to do it..because we'll still wake up at 4am, like clockwork. This year, we actually celebrated the Bermuda ball drop, and welcomed 2023 with cheers and hugs at 9pm Phoenix time...just in case we didn't make it to our 10pm celebration with New Yorkers. We actually are really proud of ourselves this year, because we didn't just celebrate with Bermuda and NY, but also with TX!! Yes, that would be 11pm for us...definitely our record for the past 5 years or so.
Our "late" night could be due to all the fun we were having, playing ou r full first game of Mahjong with some great friends of ours...5 years ago you would have found us enjoying a Saturday morning 30-50 mile ride on our road bikes together, followed by a yummy crepe brunch...but our time together in the past few months has been more characterized by dinners out and dominoes...and now Mahjong! We had a delightful evening, toasting in the New Year together...with the inherited from my grandmother and I believe may be about 100 years old!
First, we enjoyed a delicious seafood dinner at Eddie V's (We're going through the alphabet and taking turns choosing the restaurant, based on the letter it starts with. This was our designated "E" dinner date.) Then some dairy-free treats at home that I made ahead...cherry thumbprint cookies and cherry sorbet, as well as double-chocolate cookies and clementine-thyme sorbet. And for the one of us who doesn't drink any alcohol, I made a cranberry & fresh clementine sparkling ginger mocktail. Also, we were treated to some pretty special champagne, by our friends. Fun times!
"F" is next and it looks like we'll be dining at "Flint" in a couple weeks...after another game of Mahjong, and preceeding a special evening of dance entertainment at the Scottsdale Center of the Performing Arts. Can't wait!
Earlier in the day, on this last day of 2022 my mom and I spent some fun time together. She joined us for dinner the night before, on the 30th...for our leg of lamb roast dinner,and she spent the night. Then, we started off the 31st by going to the Farmer's Market, where we split breakfast and picked up some produce. Then we came back and did some cookie baking and made salsa and guacamole. She's been wanting to go to Andreoli's because I've shared how much I enjoy it, so we went there for lunch. We both got some delicious pasta...for me, the spaghetti with olive oil and garlic, and for her a red sausage sauce. Delicious, and plenty of leftovers to bring home!
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