New Year’s Day 2025

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Our daughter and son-in-law were in town for New Year’s week, so we invited the grandparents to join us for a New Year’s Day lunch.

This was our New Year’s Day table— natural country winter vibes.

And this was our New Year’s Day group!

We made sure our meal included the customary pork, collards, and black-eyed peas, not so much for superstition but for good ‘ole tradition.

My husband grilled the pork, my daughter cooked the collard greens, and I made cheese grits, peas, and cornbread.

I’ve got to share this new-to-me recipe for black-eyed peas because it was so good. I usually make black-eyed peas in a pot on the stove, but I wanted to try them in the instant pot this time because I cook other kinds of dried beans in the instant pot, and they go from dry to fully cooked within an hour–no soaking! I found this recipe on “From Valerie’s Kitchen” and it was so easy and delicious, I’m just going to make this my go-to for black-eyed peas from now on. It could be a complete meal just on a pile of rice.

For dessert we had birthday cake for Joel since his birthday was the day before, my daughter’s homemade snowflake cookies, and my mom’s eggnog punch. It was all so good!

We did not need dinner that evening!

After everyone left and the dishes were washed up, I retreated to my bedroom to lie down for a bit with a new blanket my daughter made me for Christmas. Anytime I’m on the bed Pumpkin will curl up on my legs which is sweet and so warm.

I hope your 2025 is off to a wonderful start!