Thanks to the very unwelcome guest influenza, plus work schedules, we stretched out our New Year’s celebration over three days instead of the usual two!

On New Year’s Eve, I made black bean soup and cornbread:

And we had our customary hot chocolate bar, with a twist…Turkey made the hot chocolate from scratch for us! Chickadee helped me bake two kinds of hot chocolate themed cookies to go with it, too:

And somehow I managed to stay up until midnight to ring in the new year on Gloriana:

New Year’s Day was a pretty quiet day, lacking our usual trip to the mall and the Lego store, and we had our celebratory meal today instead. We spent most of the day watching the last few Christmas movies in our annual rotation, and I made some peppermint frappes from a kit I got at Aldi:

I went with a German theme again this year for dinner, featuring Schweinelendchen mit Pilzrahmsoße (pork medallions with a mushroom cream sauce) and spaetzle, plus roasted carrots and green beans with bacon.

For dessert, Bunny and I made a Glühwein-Kuchen (mulled wine cake).

I wasn’t intending to begin 2026 with illness, but at least we still had a few nice meals to end one year and begin another!