I couldn’t sleep last night. I was too excited for 2020! Or perhaps the espresso I had yesterday morning was too strong. Either way, I feel good about 2020. I’m hopeful for happy things, plus it’s a Summer Olympics year!!! Also, I’m just so done with 2019. Joey and I had our five year wedding anniversary and the most wonderful trip to Italy, but also just a lot of tough moments both personally and on a a larger scale — does anyone else feel like this presidency has lasted a million years?? — so let me tell you about the very last day of 2019 and then let’s put it to rest, okay? Sounds good to me!
It’s starting to feel like seeing a movie is the best way to spend New Year’s Eve! We invited my sister and Wayne to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with us but then my sister suggested Little Women! I’d already seen it at an advanced screening but loved it so much and was dying to see it again so my answer was, of course, YES! Then we invited my parents and Lori and wow, did I feel happy sitting in the theater with all of them ♥♥
Guys, this movie is truly wonderful. I’ll allow the criticism about the jumping around between timelines, but I’ll hear no other bad remarks about it. It’s perfect. I was slightly horrified to find out no one cried because I openly wept the first time I saw it and then, because I knew exactly what was coming and when, had to turn to stone watching it the second time around. It’s so alive and fun and perfectly cast. I feel so lucky to live in a world where Saoirse Ronan exists, but DAMN, Florence Pugh blows me away in this film. Afterward, my mom walked up to me and said “I loved it so much! I was sad at the end because I wanted it to keep going!” and I’ve never been happier.
We grabbed a late dinner at Homegrown Tap and Dough afterward and what a mess that place is. I’m over it! They seemed short staffed and you could just tell they all wanted to go home and didn’t really care if we had a pleasant time. Twice, we had to track down our waitress. But it’s okay, because it was still fun to all have dinner together. We went back home and watched the Times Square festivities, which we had recorded and somehow messed up recording the part where they dropped the ball? Oh well!
New Year’s Day is quickly becoming my favorite holiday! I don’t think many people even celebrate it, but my family always has and we’ve taken to hosting for the past few years. It feels so small and intimate and manageable after all the Christmas celebrations. We woke up and made lattes (we’re getting better!) + whole wheat buttermilk pancakes (have I never made these before because they were wonderful!) and got to another recent New Year’s Day tradition: watching a musical! We went with Meet Me in St. Louis, which neither of us had ever seen and OH MY GOSH, WE LOVED IT! We both thought it was amazing and whacky and funny. The musical numbers are such fun and Judy Garland is just such a star. I will say that Halloween scene was truly bizarre, though!
We spent the afternoon, cleaning up a bit, prepping a four pound brisket for dinner and I made a chocolate cake! Joey and Andi needed a nap after that, so I started my first read of 2019: The Scholar. So far, so good!
My family came over at 5 and dinner was served! Guys, this was our first time cooking brisket and though we were insanely excited about it, it was a bit tough. I looked it up and sounded like we UNDERcooked it?? Perhaps we’ll try it again later in the year and see if we can figure it out or perhaps we’ll never cook brisket again, who knows! Still, the sauce was great, the carrot-sweet potato mash was amazing and everyone refused to believe I had just pan-seared those Brussels sprouts in olive oil and there was no mustard or horseradish involved. The star of the show, though, was that chocolate cake!!! It was BA’s Best Chocolate Macaroon Cake and here’s the thing, I had to bake it for almost twice as long as directed and had a bit of trouble getting the ganache to thicken up (I ended up adding a couple tablespoons of coconut oil then letting it sit in the freezer for a bit), but it all worked out and it was truly delicious. I was wowed!
Before everyone left, we all went outside to pop some confetti on the front porch. Please be good to us, 2020!!! And please tell me how the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 went for you. I hope it was splendid 🙂
Life as Lauren 