New Year's Eve

Tried to do a bit of cleaning up around here today. First, we had to make an early morning trip to the tire store for new tires because of the flat on the way back from Florida. We then ran to WalMart for some things, and I splurged and had a manicure!! I have had maybe four manicures in my life, one each time I was a mother of the groom and another time that I can remember when stopping in at WalMart. I had noticed on our way back that all my nails were long, and pretty much the same length. Thankfully I was able to hang on to them until we got back home. I have found out today that nearly everything I do around here involves my hands, and usually water as well. I am trying to keep my nails looking nice but it is very hard to do!!

Tonight, we babysat with Jonathan. I had really missed seeing him while we were gone. His mom and dad had dinner out and we took Jonathan to his first high school basketball games. One of the local schools has had a tournament during the holidays for over 50 years so we went to watch. We saw most of the girl's game and the first half of the boy's game. Jonathan was so good and was interested in all the activity.

Getting home from the game, we got the grill going and started the shrimp and oysters, while I gave Jonathan a bath. We used seasoned salt, olive oil, and a few other spices for our cooking. During the time we were trying to get them ready, my phone rang and it was Brandon. We had dropped off about 30 oysters and several dozen shrimp at his house on our way home from Florida. He was calling to blame me for him being miserable!! He had eaten all the oysters and I am sure he helped Samantha eat some of the shrimp as well. He was a bit more precise in his cooking, concocting a butter with chives, cayenne pepper, garlic, and some other things that he put a spoonful of on each oyster before he grilled them. He said they were quite awesome. They baked the shrimp and I think Brandon said that Samantha made shrimp quesadillas out of hers. Marci and Jeremy got here just as we were finishing up the seafood and tried it out. I think they enjoyed it as well. We still have quite a few oysters that we must eat/cook up fairly soon, as well as more shrimp. I can tell you one thing, I have had my share of oysters on the half shell in the past week, and have enjoyed them greatly!!

Jeremy and Marci brought champagne, and we sat down to watch tv and see the New Year in. Needless to say, the old folks fell asleep so the young people packed up the baby and took off for home. We never even opened the champagne!! I hope they didn't think us bad hosts.....