Hi Bloggies –

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone is having a great first day of 2009. Ben and I really enjoyed our evening out in Boston and had an amazing dinner at Bonfire. Ben has promised to be a guest blogger soon to talk about his dinner!

This morning we went to Au Bon Pain for breakfast. I love the oatmeal bar! Ben and I enjoyed oatmeal with almonds, raisins, and touch of brown sugar… yum. It kept me pretty full until lunch time.

For lunch I snacked on some popcorn while watching the University of Iowa beat South Carolina in the Outback Bowl… Ben was so thrilled to cheer on his team to victory – it was a lot of fun!  Along with the popcorn, I had one slice of Honey Whole Wheat bread with a spoonful of Teddy PB and TJ’s raspberry jam and one of Marilyn’s oatmeal cookies!

After the Iowa game (they won 31-7!) Ben, Marilyn and I bundled up to go outside. We drove to my mom’s house in Rhode Island for fun, games and dinner. Little did I know this was birthday celebration #1. For dessert we had chocolate birthday cake!!! But we will get to that in a few minutes.

It was really nice for the four of us to spend some time together. My mom had made some amazing pita chips (bake pita chips in the oven: you spray the pita bread with olive oil cooking spray [a light coating] sprinkle with garlic powder, chives and one other ingredient I cannot remember right now and bake on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes), hummus, and a cranberry dip – plenty of snacks to keep me busy 🙂 Everything was great!

Dinner was home made meatballs, tomato sauce and spaghetti – one of my favorite dinners, especially on a super cold winter day. Oh, and today was a super cold winter day!! It did not get above 19 degrees ALL DAY!

This dinner did A LOT to warm me up! 🙂

I also had a wonderful salad that my mom made…

This was a fantastic combo, and really reminded me of my childhood. My mom and dad spent years perfecting their famous (at least in our family!) tomato sauce… it is soo good!

After dinner we had to play a few games, because none of us were hungry for the amazing chocolate cake that was for dessert. We played two LONG games of Rummikub – and that was a lot of fun.

Eventually we were ready for birthday cake! Here is a pic of me and my mom right before I made my birthday wish and blew out the candles… 🙂

I enjoyed a slice of cake with some ice cream. I am still full, a couple of hours after!

Once we got back to our house, I spent some time getting the kitchen together and picking up a bit… It has been a busy week in our house!

It is late, so I am heading to bed now. Good night and I will blog tomorrow!