Happy New Year’s Friends!!!! (waving vigorously) It’s been far too long since I’ve posted and fueled by a little afternoon caffeine chosen over the afternoon nap, I’ve decided to pop in and share our New Year’s Holiday. We’ve been fortunate over the years to have a multitude of opportunities to ring in the New Year with a variety of friends. This year while we did not make it to the southern good luck tradition of eating greens and Hoppin John on New Years Day, we  feel lucky to have been at a fun gathering with a group of families that involved yummy appetizers, fireworks, fondue and lots of littles for our Sistred to run around with.

The reason we didn’t manage a New Year’s day brunch was a happy one as well. Our Zuzu is a big fan of what she calls “Hotel Vacations”. On the first day back to school after the Christmas Holiday you would expect her to excitedly tell about all the loot and loving gifts she received from loved ones near and far. But no. Instead in her mind she had already moved on to the potential “Hotel Vacation” Lovey and I had been discussing in the past week. With our newest bird getting ready to join us we’ve been trying to find devoted time to these little ones and their favorite things while not wearing out ourselves or becoming buried in an avalanche off of Mt. Washmore. So we agreed after our New Year’s gathering we would trek back up the mountain to one of our favorite towns to visit- Asheville and relax in a hotel that offered an indoor pool and go out for tasty treats and an activity or two.

We toasted in the New Year’s with a breakfast toast that is more in time with a tired family who can’t manage to see the New Year in at midnight these days.

The Early Girl is one of our favorite Asheville hang-outs. Any restaurant that offers up a tin of crayons, a paper tablecloth and a bucket of toys with each highchair has my blessing. Of course the tasty breakfast treats like multigrain pancakes for the kids, Early Girl Eggs Bennie which is the traditional with a substitute of a grit cake for a muffin and tomato gravy for the topping for me and a sweet potato-sausage scramble for Charlie all served in a sunny room makes sure that we have many happy returns. It doesn’t hurt that Zuzu learned to draw a bird off of the local pottery and the neighboring table offered to take our photo rather than ask us to leave.

The girls love to have the opportunity to swim and so the hotel was a hit. The other great treat for us was our first family movie as a group of 4. We had taken Zuzu to her first movie theater movie the friday after Thanksgiving while her sister went to school. It had been a special day for her to have solo attention from both of her parents and she had thoroughly enjoyed watching Arthur Christmas and a lunch out a restaurant. Zuzu’s always been one that is easily spooked by violence, even cartoon violence. Every time we try to show her The Muppet Show it is met with the question of “Why does that pig keep hitting that frog? It’s not nice!” So we’ve been hesitant to take her to a new show that hasn’t been previewed. Her sister on the other hand, is not easily scared. Knowing this we ventured out on New Year’s Day to Asheville’s Pizza and Brewing. A movie theater that offers up slices of gourmet pizza, micro-brews and second run shows. Puss N Boots was showing  and for $3 a ticket we figured if we made it through the opening credits with both girls it was still worth it to grab some lunch. Much to our surprise and delight, the Quail LOVED being in the theater. She immediately stood up and started pretending to run and dance along with the cats on screen and helped herself to Momma and Lovey’s specialty pizza of walnuts, pesto, gorgonzola and sesame seed while making it clear she wasn’t interested in the old grilled cheese we had bought her. It was a fun day for all and a great way to end the holidays. We’ll definitely be rining in the new as we prepare for our spring bird to join our family! Hope the holiday season was a delight for everyone!

Corner view is a weekly Wednesday date hosted originally hosted by Jane, currently by Francesca. A topic is given and you can see impressions; be it in photographic or poetic in form from around the world: Jane, Dana, Bonny, Joyce, Ian, Francesca, Theresa, Cate, Kasia, Otli, Trinsch, Isabelle, Janis, Kari, jgy, Lise, Dorte, McGillicutty, Sunnymama, Ibb, Kelleyn, Ninja, Sky, RosaMaria, Juniper, Valerie, Sammi, Cole, Don, WanderChow, FlowTops, Tania, Tzivia, Kristin, Laura, Guusje, Susanna, Juana, Elsa, Nadine