2023 ~ January Recap

 

January 2023 ... New Year's Day, new calendars, SNOW ... basketball and the builder's convention. Biggest update ~  Keaton got a new job. Here's highlights:

• New Year's Day: After an uneventful New Year's Eve (no real plans, to bed early) we headed to Clay and Courtney's for the annual Pastry Wreath. The weather made the trip a bit scary!
• SNOW: Lots of snow to usher in the first day of the year! Enough that Zumba was cancelled the next day and a HUGE pile of snow was formed in front of the house. Lots of shoveling.
• BASKETBALL: Colton is busy with basketball (see the post on the BlackhamBall blog with all the current season info). Going early before school, practices after, team dinners on Thursday nights and of course games! Almost every Tuesday and Friday. While the WJ team is struggling (hasn't won a game in region play) Colton has been getting some good numbers and recognition. Jen has gone to every game, Gray and the bigger boys have hit several. Cooper has not attended in person, but goes over the clips (helps for the highlights) so he still sees the games and has gotten to know the team from home. 
• Fantasy Football: Cooper won (3rd place) in his fantasy football league. There is an entry fee, which goes towards the rewards. Coop won $200. Uncle Kolby AND UncleClay/Cousin Will were participating this year.
• New Job: Keaton had been wanting to expand his electrical knowledge to more that residential building. After looking to see who was hiring and going in for a few interviews, he's started a new job with K2 Electric. He turned in his Camsen company van (which frees up space in the driveway) and is back to driving his Corolla. Right now, the company put him on a residential build, which turned out to be a good thing, as it gave him a chance to shine right off the bat. Callahan will miss having Keaton at the same company.
• Continued Car Concerns: We had to take Colton's Charger in after it started "clicking" and then the Durango "check engine" light came on again and needed a repair. Told our mechanic "Thanks, but hope we do NOT see you again soon!" Luckily this was done early in the month when we still had Keaton's Corolla as an "extra" car. With the Camsen work van gone, and Keaton's Corolla in daily use, we rearranged things so that it could park in the third car garage (saving Keaton the early morning scrape in winter) ... it's a tight fit, and the Corolla is the smallest car.
• Builder's Convention: At the end of the month, Gray and a couple others from Symphony headed to Vegas for a few days for the International Builder's Convention. 
• Westra Sibling Dinner: Got almost all the Westra siblings and the folks out to Olive Garden in American Fork. Family and Food!
• Just Jen: Still making sourdough three times a week, still teaching Zumba ... had a session with the Achievement Day girls this month. Still playing some  PokemonGo ;) Not much blogging in January (a couple posts on the family blog) but an increased obsession with books. Updated her Goodreads, joined another tracking website (Storygraph) and joined a bookclub in the neighborhood, which meets monthly.

It's been a year since Jen went boom ... happily no ill effects from that fall. With the new year, deductibles and out of pocket medical bills have reset. Gray cut his finger pretty good prepping a meal ... perhaps should have had stitches, but it's healing. Keaton is finally feeling back to normal after his Carpal Tunnel surgery. Most everything else with the family is continuing to go on per usual. 

JenBsBooks ~ 2022

 

I don't set any type of reading "goal" for the year ... I just read. I record, rate and review all my books on my Goodreads profile sh(e)reader. While I'm happy if my ratings/reviews help authors and others, I do them mainly for myself ... to remember what I read and how I felt about it.  There's a full post about my #JenBsBooks for the year on my personal blog. 

As each month ended ... I'd create a collage of the books I'd gone through that month. Here are those compilations. Remembering my reading.

#JenB Bakes ... December Desserts and Breads

 

There are so many baking/dessert possibilities to create in December ... in previous years, I tried out some new cookies (Grinch Cookies and Crinkle Cookies in 2018,  Peppermint Puffs in 2019) and some Blackham classics ... gingersnaps, Swedish Spritz, chocolate chip with red&green m&ms, copycat Swig cookies, chut-out sugar cookies, mint and marshmallow brownies, and of course, Chex mix! Between finding the time, and trying NOT to put on pounds over the holidays, I didn't get to making everything.

2022 holiday desserts included Swedish Spritz with my cute snowflake and tree cookie press patterns. One of the templates broke ... so I had to order a whole new set (I HAD to). I made one batch of peppermint puffs, just dropping them by the spoonful rather than messing with a bag and tip (not quite as cute, but they were just for Coop and I to eat. Me with crushed candy cane sprinkled on top, Coop prefers them without). Swig cookies were prepped for parties ... they are great to make ahead and freeze, as are the brownies (the former brought to both family Christmas parties, the latter just to the Westra gathering). Chex mix is an annual holiday treat too, something the gluten-free crowd can eat.  Not made by Jen, but there were the classic Westra gingersnaps, and Gray made a light cheesecake pie. 

Cinnamon pull-aparts were baked up Christmas morning (while Jen does make cinnamon rolls from scratch, these were just Rhoads set out over night to rise). Jen prepped chicken noodle soup and breadsticks for both family parties, adding some orange rolls/regular rolls, and Brazilian cheese rolls too. 

While the rolls can be baked ahead of time, the breadsticks really need to be baked fresh. There were two full pans brought to the Blackham Bash ... and we ran out of breadsticks. So for the Westra party, it was a double batch of dough, and five pans of breadsticks (in addition to the rolls).  We'd had ONE of these plastic lids for the big baking sheet, and Gray pulled it out to transport the pans to the first party. It was so handy, that he bought several more ... early (and appreciated) present for Jen, and it made a HUGE difference, making the pans stackable, both for raising and for transport. They are a game changer!

The Westra party was held at the new house in Highland. Two ovens in Shane and Alicia's kitchen, and another over in the attached home of the folks. So there were a couple pans of breadsticks going in the main kitchen, and the Brazilian cheese rolls baking up in Mom/Margie's oven ... with Jen running in between. The two kitchens are quite close together, but still, quite a few steps on the Fitbit getting the breads baked up for the Westra party. Jen had a 20k day on Christmas Eve. Hopefully holding off some of the calories from all these carbs!