New Traditions

It is already January 6th and I'm behind on my blogging. I've got lots to catch up on, including the mandatory New Year's Resolution post, that just about everyone has to write at some point. Before I dive into that, pretend that I'm writing this on January 1st and that I'm giving a recap of New Year's Eve. Are you with me? Ok good.

In years past, New Year's Eve was a time of fancy outfits, expensive dinners, lots of drinking and a big fat hangover to ring in the new year. Then, B arrived and all of that changed. Last year, we did the fancy dinner with friends and then came home and watched the ball drop. This year, we decided to take a more thoughtful approach to the holiday, and I'm so very glad that we did.

We decided to start the evening out with steak at J.Gilbert's and we took the tiny human with us along for the ride. A friend and her husband joined us as well, so our New Year's reservation was for 4 and a highchair. Since they are parents, they weren't scared of a tiny human in a restaurant and didn't skip a beat when he got a little antsy towards the end of the meal. To keep the schedule in tact, our reservations were for 5pm. I'm also proud to say that I didn't see many other tiny humans out for dinner. I'm sure our fellow diners took a deep breath when we walked in with B, but tiny humans are portable and he's part of the family.

After dinner, we headed home with a plan to attempt to bake a New Year's Pretzel. Growing up in Pennsylvania, this was a staple for my family for New Year's. Eating it on New Year's Day is supposed to bring good luck. It isn't anything complicated, just cinnamon bread, shaped like a pretzel with some icing on top. Unfortunately for me though, it isn't something that is common in Ohio and every year I suffer with a sub par New Year's Pretzel. First world problem, I know.

Since we decided to go without a babysitter this year (not that we have many options), I thought it would be fun to bake our own. We had all of the raw materials and just needed a few packs of yeast. To prepare, I got to pinning and researching some recipes and came across a recipe on the Ronald McDonald House website. Link. Ours looks nothing like this, so we took some pictures of our project!

iPhone at the ready

Selfie before we got to work

Adding flour to the butter/milk/yeast mixture.

Elbow grease!

We used this recipe as a guideline, eliminating the apple/nut filling and adding cinnamon sugar instead. The result? A giant pretzel that tasted like bread. BUT - it was better than the store bought versions in year's past. It was also a really fun activity for Nick and I to do while we waited for the ball to drop. I'm looking forward to having B help with this in the coming years and really hope that this becomes a regular tradition in our house...after I perfect the recipe, of course.