I let my kids stay up until midnight on NYE | Dinner Plus Drinks #2

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Happy New Year. Welcome to 2020 and welcome to episode two of Dinner Plus Drinks. I'm Nick Borfegel from Lake Geneva Country Meets.

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And I'm Bridget Leach from Lake Geneva Country Meets.

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And we're here to talk about some stuff, give you some New Year's things, recipes, talk about your resolutions. We just want to give you some really great ways to learn a little bit about ways you can make your food better this year, share some funny stories, and just uh look forward to a great year.

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Kick off 2020 in the right way.

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Now, I would normally ask you, how was your new year? But I know how it was because I was there with you. But how was your New Year's Eve?

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Oh, you know what? Um, more on this in Kids Corner, but I made a really wise parenting choice that night. Stay tuned.

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Stay tuned. Yes. We're gonna talk about that at the end of the podcast. I had a great time. We were partying with some friends, pretty low-key.

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Yep.

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But uh I had to leave a little early, so I'm looking forward to this story as well because I want to know how the night ended up. I think I might know. It maybe involved some cuddling.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Oh, I don't know. I guess. So maybe we'll find out.

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Maybe we'll find out. Do you have any uh resolutions for 2020?

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You know, um, I'm not a real big resolution person, but I I read two really great things while searching the interwebs. Um, two things that stuck with me. One was an article about simply surviving. Like, you know what? You're doing your best, just make it through the year. Maybe it's not your year to run a marathon. Um, maybe it's not your year to clean every room in your house, and you just want to make it and be the best you can. And I kind of like that. It was just a broad statement. Loved it for people that were maybe you know going through a tough season in life. And the other thing I saw was um was a note about ditching resolutions because it's so your resolution is to ditch resolutions.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yeah, man, I'm ditching resolutions.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Okay, you know, um resolving means that you're solving a problem, and I'm not a problem. So I loved that one. Check it out, it's all over Facebook. I'll post it actually to the blog. We'll post that. If you want a reason to not have a resolution, I'm here for you.

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Bridget gives you permission to have a resolution to not have a resolution.

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Don't laugh at me. What's your resolution, Nick?

SPEAKER_02 2:25

I'm just trying to be smarter with time. It's something I've been working on uh since the kid is when your time's your own, it's your own, and who cares if you spent 45 minutes on the internet looking at Star Wars Legos and trying to figure out if you could buy the original version of the X-Wing that you made when you're a kid because the new ones suck. Oh, of course. So when you have a kid and you know you gotta go pick him up or put him to sleep, um, you know, it's quite the adjustment. This isn't news to anybody, but that's my resolution. Just try to be a little bit more mindful of time. I'm a big planner type. We're gonna have some recommendations that we're gonna share. We both are planners. I see you your new ones there. It's all pretty.

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Yeah, we're looking at our planners sitting right here on the desk with us, so we're gonna talk about that.

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So we'll have some recommendations for you later. But first, uh let's talk about what we're drinking today. Great. Today's a beer day.

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It is. We had a lot of wine over the holidays, so we switched to some beer today.

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And this comes to us from one of my favorite breweries, newer to Wisconsin, but uh been in Illinois for a while. And this comes from Maplewood in Chicago. They are a brewery and a distillery. And this is Juice Pants, which is their base, juicy India Paleo. And it's delicious.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

It is. I've got to say, as a convert, someone who didn't normally drink a lot of IPAs, um, I've learned to love them. And this is a great one if you're looking at transition into the world of IPA. Not to mention beautiful branding. Beautiful branding. Yes.

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I think that's what brought you in.

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It is, obviously. I mean, we all know someone who's buying their alcohol based on what the label looks like. Don't pretend like you don't.

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It's like everybody.

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I mean, right.

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We all know somebody I personally look for the most boring French-looking label I can find, where it's just like chateau pétan surmis.

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Right.

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And I'm like, oh man, that's serious.

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Yeah, but the rest of us are looking for the beautiful watercolor red and orange label, which is what Juice Pants is. So check it out and tell me I'm wrong.

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Check it out. Everything from Maple was great, they do a great pilsner, they do great stouts. But this is a hazy IPA, so use hops to provide more melony and tropical fruit flavors without the bitterness. It's just how you add it. So if you want something that isn't wine, something refreshing, you don't want to do the hard seltzer thing because um sometimes it just doesn't have that much flavor. A little hazy IPA. A little hazy IPA. Yeah, we're not we're not in college pounding white wall.

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We're adults here drinking IPA, guys.

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So anyway, that's what comes in attractive pint cans.

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Yep, four packs.

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So we'll share we'll share a little bit more about Maplewood on the blog post for this page. But uh yeah, it's a nice little come down after all the wine for New Year's. It's refreshing and beautiful. So beautiful. Well, what was the best thing you ate? And the answer better be lobster guy because the world wants to know how did your lobster tail experience go?

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I know you've all been waiting on pins and needles, and let me tell you, it was great. Okay? Yay!

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I need to get a soundboard so I can have the air horn.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

For now, we'll just sing it. Yeah because we have beautiful singing voice. Beautiful. Um, we'll get right into it, okay? It was great, and it was easy. I'm embarrassed to even say I've never made one because they were so. You shouldn't be totally embarrassed. I know. It was ridiculous, okay? Let me let me just lay that out there. Um, or either way, my my wonderful husband, maybe he lied and said he liked it, but I enjoyed mine.

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Tyler's terrible at lying.

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You're right.

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So I think He's got one of these faces where you're like, dude, just like put a mask on if you're not a few. But I love it. You know, maybe he could do like the Joker thing where he put some, and you're like, I that's the only thing he could do for people to not know if he's lying.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Well then I think it was probably good. Um, so we had eight ounce lobster tails, thank you, and they we both seem to enjoy them. And I've got to say, I'm a visual person, so I used the video on the website and paused it 800 times to make sure I was doing things correctly. Okay.

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Frame by frame.

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Frame by frame. Is this correct? Is this correct? Again, it was ridiculous. But the hardest part was the preparation, cutting the V shape.

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That is hard. You do so. Some people try to do it with a knife, and I think they're idiots. It's not safe. Uh, you need a really sharp knife, and you're gonna cut yourself. Like you, you are the shelf's hard and it's sharp. So sh kitchen shears, good kitchen shears are are key for that.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

And I I, of course, I followed the recipe to a T. So kitchen shears is what I used because I'm not about to venture outside of what your recipe says. So, kitchen shears, also my recommendation. You know, I also cut into the meat just a tiny bit on the first one. Uh, the second one that I made, perfect. So, of course, I took the perfect one, ate that, gave Tyler the other one.

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You're worth it.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Thank you. I appreciate it.

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This was a big year for you. You know what? You had you had kid number two who started a brand new job at Lake Cheney the Country Meats. Big year for you.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

So I deserve that. Tyler hasn't done anything. He doesn't deserve We love you, Tyler. So yeah, really, I was just nervous, I think, on that first one. So by the second one, I was a pro. Uh, that's all it took. Um, we ate the lobster tails as recommended with a surf and turf. So we made a whole little special dinner for us. And I gotta tell you, this wasn't on New Year's Eve. Uh, we had it the next day, um, but still delicious. Um, so we ate the lobster tails with a delicious culette.

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Coulottes, yes.

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Yeah, we were course, yes.

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French, yes. I think it's culottes. I don't know. French people correct me. We had a couple people listen uh from France for the last episode.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Well, so then maybe tell us how wrong I am. But it tasted great. Um, you know, all in all, a success. And I think so easy that we'll make them again sometime. Nice. So thanks. And everyone who's never tried it, do it. Watch the video. But it's great. It was so easy, and I'm so happy I did it.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Wonderful.

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Yeah, so thanks so much. You're welcome for all the support out there, people.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

We did the same thing where our best meal was the day after because we did a pretty casual taco bar at the friend's house. Shout out to Josie. That was great. So good. Really nice taco bar. And there was a couple different types of taco meat and shell options. She did a really good job. She went over the top.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Yeah, well, I mean, also there was delicious snacks all night. Cheese.

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There was lots of cheese.

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Weird. That's odd.

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I there should have been more cheese, in my opinion. Should have just been all cheese.

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No tacos, just cheese.

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I would have been more okay with that.

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It was great, regardless, is what we're saying. Lots of great food, lots of great company, and lots of great drinks.

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But we did our traditional meal for New Year's Eve on New Year's Day, night, dinner. This is confusing now. But we did it on the night of January 1st.

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January 1st. Kick it up.

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Which is I roast a whole tenderloin head. I do it sous-vie. So on a tenderloin, there's a tail, there's a head, there's a barrel. Uh I take the head, which usually will go and kind of cut into different flays, and I roast it whole. And the nice thing I do it sous V, so it cooks to a perfect temperature, and then I finish it. Um big green egg. And this is maybe the most wasteful use of charcoal in the history of wasteful uses of charcoal. But I basically burn, let's call it a quarter of a bag of charcoal in one go for about four minutes of searing, because I get to sucker up to like 700 degrees.

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Okay.

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So the steak's just, you know, like perfectly cooked on the inside, and then I get just ripping hot fire.

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This is a good one.

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And this is this is what you can do. Big green egg, shout out to big green eggheads, and then hard sear, hard sear, hard sear, hard sear. And the nice thing about the head is I like my steak a little less done, and Sarah likes hers a little bit more. So there's kind of some on the edges and some in the middle. So the ones on the edges, I cut those nice and small and petite for my wife, and they're nice and well done. And then I have the middle, and that's a little bit more pink for myself, and it was delicious.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

This sounds like the way that Tyler and I would eat as well. A little bit of Sarah, I'm with you on the more well done. You guys are wrong.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

A little bit more mashed potatoes. We did some asparagus grilled too. Oh, yeah. It was delicious. And my favorite thing are the Noor seasoning packets where you could do like the gravy. Like I I make great gravy from scratch, but sometimes you're just like so. We did uh nice spoonful of gravy on the top. I'll put a picture up. It was delicious, but that's our our traditional thing, and we had uh I think we had a bottle of brunello with it. It was pretty good. I liked it. I liked it.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

My uh lobster tail surf and turf maybe wasn't as beautiful, but tasted delicious. Again, this was try. Number one, we'll put pictures up of both the meals for you to enjoy on the blog.

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Check it out. Let us know what you made for New Year's. We love hearing your traditions. We got some great mailbag questions. Um we're gonna talk about one, but we got some great feedback. Thank you to everybody that sent that in. So, yeah, let us know uh what you think of our New Year's and what you ate. We would happily talk about that in next week's episode. But looking forward, it's time to talk meal plan.

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Love it.

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And while we're resolving not to make a resolution, a lot of people do want to eat healthier. And I think one of the things that you read about how to make good resolutions is don't say, I am going to be healthy. Yes. Do do achievable small steps, right? And I think with meal planning, it's a pretty achievable step where you can say you don't have to do a full week's new meal plan, but you can say, I'm gonna pick two meals ahead of time that are gonna be whatever health things you want to do. And uh this week's meal plan is talking about lean meat, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Yeah, and really we are here to help. So each week we're doing meal planning for you. So we're gonna post um at least dinner recipes, and there's so much food that you can use it um left over for lunches. So if you're really just trying to, you know, if you did set that resolution um and you want to hit that goal, we'll help you meal plan each week. So um check out our Facebook page for meal plans. This week we're talking about lean meats. Um, I think that people have the misconception that when you're eating healthy, you just have to eat salads.

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Uh salads are delicious, shout out to salads.

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However, they make great lunches with leftover dinners.

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Exactly.

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So um this week we've got a lot of pork recipes, uh chicken, and my favorite recipe on the meal plan this week is a flank steak. So it's a simple marinated flank steak. Yeah, it's a great um lean meat and tons of flavor.

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And it's a great way to feed a family. One flank steak will easily feed four people. It's a great party thing, however you want to do it. Which marinated one did you pick? Because there's lots of ways you can do that.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Yeah, we did the one I chose to feature this week, steakhouse marinated flank steaks. Oh, that's really good. Yeah, classic flavors. I think that it's a good intro if you if you're not used to eating flank steak.

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Yeah, put it with some whatever potatoes.

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You really can, yeah. You can kind of mix and match with whatever. Love me some quinoa.

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Great on rice.

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Um Nick, what is your favorite lean meat this week?

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So I know this is a little lame. I know this is a little, you know, like basic white person, but I'm going with the chicken breasts recipe.

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Okay, shout out to chicken breasts here. I love them. I know, but don't hate on them.

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I mean, they're they're good. I'm not gonna Great on a salad. Great on a salad. So, so we at our house we love bowls. Um we love being able to walk around and eat. We don't have a great dining room situation, so bowls are obviously the most convenient thing in the world because you have all your food there and it's not gonna go all over. And so I'm picking our Southwest chicken bowl, and this is something I did as a compromise for my wife and myself. My wife loves beans. Loves beans. I cannot stand beans. All beans? Just like in general, I like a good casole. Okay, um, but I feel like it's been stewed so long and there's so much other stuff, it doesn't count as beans. So she loves black beans, baked beans, kidney beans, all the beans. Good one. And I just, it's a textural thing. Yeah, as we discussed with the like cheese last week. Yeah. Uh thanks to everybody that mailed in saying, Nick, you're an idiot. That's the weirdest thing I ever heard of. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Bridget. Really appreciated that. Um, so with a bowl, I did the Southwest chicken bowl, it has corn, it has Mexican rice, some lime, cilantro, beautifully seasoned chicken, and black beans. Yeah. So Sarah gets her black beans. I don't have to eat them. This bowl, check out the recipe. Um pat on the back, Nick. Great, beautiful picture.

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Definitely is beautiful. Make sure to look at it.

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The I'm gonna three things that are key to this recipe.

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Okay.

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One, the seasoning rub. Uh, we use the urban accents mesa rosa. We have that in the store. If you're not local, you don't want to stop in. Um, get something that has a little bit of smokiness to it.

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Okay.

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Um when you're doing boneless, skinless chicken, you can just put salt and pepper and that's fine. But I think adding something that has some umami or a little bit of roastiness helps chicken so much. So that chipotle where it's smoked pepper helps tremendously. Two, cilantro, I feel horrible for the 25% of people or so that are genetically inferior and just don't like cilantro. It's not your fault.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

I mean, uh, though it can be overpowering.

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No, did you did you know this? What? So, like, there's legitimately 25% of people in the world with some genetic thing where cilantro tastes like soap.

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Really?

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Yeah, it's not their fault.

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Oh, that's so interesting.

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Yeah, so like people that don't like cilantro, it's not like they're like, oh, I just don't like it. It's genetic. It is, wow.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

I mean I did not know that.

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It's genetically inferior because it makes everything better. Okay. But I feel horrible because you'll never enjoy cilantro, a little bit of freshness to it, and then finally limes. Um Americans chronically under season their food. It's just how we do things. And so the easiest thing to say is okay, throw more salt on. But a lot of the times instead of salt, a little bit of acidity. Um, I always keep lemon juice around the house because if you're tasting something, you're like, it's just a little needs a little something, burst of lemon juice, great. But on this one, lime just takes care of it and it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Great. And you know, we love bowls too. Bowls are a great way to uh feed a group as well because you can mix and match what you are putting in the bowl. So if you have someone that has lots of allergies, you know, if you have family members that um either have picky eaters or lots of allergies, just kind of make the carb and the protein and lay out a whole bunch of other things that you can top on the bowl and people can mix and match and make whatever they'd like.

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Definitely put out cheese with. Some people are gonna put cheese with on it.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Yeah, that would be our pro tip of the week.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

All right, let's take a break. Okay. For today's product recommendation, as we mentioned at the start, we're gonna recommend some planners. I'm gonna start. I have to give a shout out to the Ink and Volt planner. I've used this for about five years now, and it comes in a variety of beautiful colors. And what I like about it is that it gives you some thought prompts, it gives you goal setting without being annoying, has pages for the entire year, a monthly calendar, weekly calendars, and it kind of lets you do things your own way. So if you like a little bit of structure, but a little bit of freeform, I would check this out. I use it every day, set goals, set what I'm gonna do. And Inconvolt.com, you can get your own. Tell them I sent you. You're not gonna save any money, but just I don't know, tell them I sent you. Feels like the right thing to say. So we'll put a link up to that. And if you're looking for a planner, I would definitely recommend the Inc and Vault.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

You know what? I love the Inc and Volt planner myself. This year I am trying out a new planner. Um, it's the Saver Life Planner, my next 90 days. So I've been doing a lot of research, and I love a science-backed planner that helps with productivity. And um, so this planner is also beautiful, comes in a variety of colors. Um, my sister gifted me a beautiful two-tone pink one this year for the holidays. And this one is broken down into four main components, and self-care is first. So, something we're all pretty bad at, I bet. I'm bad at it. So, something I'm gonna work on. Second area is your 90-day vision. So, 90 days is totally achievable, it's not daunting, gives you time, but also a nice deadline uh to work on some goals. Then it talks about your weekly and daily rituals, and then organizing your gorgeous chaos. So, this is a uh woman-owned company, so that's lovely in my mind, and it really helps you kind of get together your gorgeous chaos.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

And we're back, we're going full meat tip. Bridget had her culott steaks. Coulot. And that's gonna be the meat tip for this week. I just wanted to share a little bit about culott steaks and really sirloin steaks as a whole. Have you ever heard of culottes steaks before? I told you to get some for your surf and turf.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

I have not, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

They're they're kind of new. They're uh what the beef council calls an innovative steak. Thank you. Uh basically it means a way to take a cut of meat that we've done the same thing for like 500 years and do something new with it. Okay. So they're they're thin, they got a nice fat cap. And if you've ever had a top sirlin or top butt steak, it's kind of similar, but we take the cap and we slice those thin. They're affordable, they're under 10 bucks a pound at our store. You can find them for more from ridiculous places or less, from cheaper places. But they cook fast, they have great sirloin tip flavor. And if you are looking for some steaks that are fun, a little different, we're doing lots of fun stuff off the sirloin. We're doing picanha, which is uh Brazilian cut, big thing, and then picanha cuts down the culottes. We do sirloin kebabs, all sorts of things. So culottes steaks, we're gonna put a little bit more information about them. If you don't see them, ask, we're happy to cut them. And that's one of the great things about butcher shop. And you like the flavor? It was a good one.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Yeah, it paired great beefy. Rich beefy. It cooked quickly, which is what I loved because the lobster obviously only took about 12 minutes. So the uh steak did the same. Give it a try. You know, it was nice and new for me. Um, never would have tried without this great recommendation, so thank you, and we'll be having it again.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Meat tip of the week. Try a culott steak, try a picania. We'll uh talk about all the sirloin stip uh stirlo Oh goodness. Oh, this is tough. Sirloin tip steaks on the uh blog post for this episode. So check it out if you want to try something new. Kulates and bonus certified lean steak.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Oh, look at that. Hey, you know what? That's a great thing to start off your new year. More lean meat. Mailbag time. Mailbag.

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We got a lovely question from listener Lindsay.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Hi, Lindsay.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Lindsay, you're the best. We miss you. And she was impressed that Elliot was so intrigued by the shrimp.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Yeah, you know, Lindsay and I, um, I have the pleasure of knowing Lindsay, and we have kids that are around the same age, so it's always fun to um help each other out here with our motherly wisdom or something. Uh you know, I don't know how we got Elliot to try the shrimp. We talked about it a lot.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Because she wants to know how you get Elliot to try a shrimp. How do you get because her kid, she wants to know how she can get him to try some more food.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Yep, absolutely. So um Elliot wants to, you know, he wants to be one of the adults. So he likes to do what the rest of us are doing. So we let him sit at the table with us and we serve him.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

Shame him into trying it.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

I mean, that's what I'm saying in a nice way. Elliot. Um, we let him sit at the table with us, of course. We let him sit in a big boy chair and we let him eat what we're eating. So um, of course, we don't force him to eat it, but we talk about it a lot. Um, we put it on his plate, and if he wants to try it, great. It takes him quite a few questions before he'll he's willing to try it. But he does try it because I think he just um he he wants to know. He's very inquisitive. So um let him ask the questions, put him up put it on his plate, I think is the is the pro tip right there. Um and he's not gonna eat the whole thing, you know? I mean, Elliot didn't. He he decided he didn't really love it, but he tried it.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

No, I'm not super talented to e answer this question because Simona's. 11 weeks old.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Simona doesn't eat shrimp yet.

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We threw this out on our Facebook and our Instagram to get some comments, and we got some good ones. And shout out to Ellie. Ellie says that her trick is her husband's a really good cook. I can attest to that. They own an awesome bar in Waukeshaw that I would highly recommend. But he says roasting vegetables is a good trick because it makes them more delicious. And so kids are more likely to try a roasted vegetable instead of a raw one if you'd like to get them into that. And she also says putting veggies into a sauce, whether it's marinara cheese sauce for macaroni, is going to also help them try that.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Yeah, you read my mind. I was about to um, you know, when we started trying to get Elliot to eat more vegetables, we just chopped up spinach super fine, threw it in our marinara sauce. He had no idea.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

And then my sister, Abby, she suggests help having the kids help cook.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Oh, that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

And when they're invested in it, they are more likely to try that.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Yeah, absolutely. Um, and you know, it's it allows you to cook dinner without trying to entertain them at the same time in the other room and they're screaming for you. This way they're part of the process. I can attest to that big time. Elliot loves to be in the kitchen with us. Um, the other thing is, you know, Elliot does eat raw broccoli. I know it's weird, but I love raw broccoli broccoli too. I love all broccoli. And so we just somehow along the way we started calling it trees. And so yeah, man, he loves trees. So we just we put trees on his plate and he thinks it's hilarious to just eat the tops off the trees. So fun, creative ways to get your kids to eat interesting things.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

So thanks for the question, Lindsay. You're awesome. Thanks for the suggestions, Ellie. Go check out House of Guinness and Waukeshaw if you want to try some of Ian's cooking. Sounds good. And great English beers. Thanks, Abby, my sister, for the suggestions. And yeah, that's our mailbag question. Submit your questions. Let us know what you're doing for New Year's, if you have any meal planning tips, your favorite lean meat, dinnerplusdrinks.com. We have a contact form there, or email us directly at hello at dinnerplusdrinks.com.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Yep, we love to hear from you.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

Let's wrap up this week's episode with Kid Corner.

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Our favorite.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

I'm gonna go first because I think yours is better. I don't know. And you've already teased it. And mine, you know, so last week we had kind of one of the like not joys of parenting. Uh this week it's been it's been uh a big, a big growth week for Simona. Big, big growth week. 11 weeks. 11 weeks, man. It's unbelievable. And she started talking a little bit and vocalizing more and smiling more.

SPEAKER_03 24:35

That's great.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

And so, you know, she's still been a little terror. Uh, we call her Sim Monster because she's a little monster. But uh there's been a little couple payoff moments this week, and she she's not a great sleeper. I mean, I know no kid's a great sleeper, but she's really not a great sleeper.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

I hear you on that one.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

And we got her um a little thing that puts lights on the ceiling, like a kind of Aurora Borealis type of thing. And so she can watch that and kind of calm down and you know, whatever. So we were her and I chilling out, trying to go to sleep, sitting on our backs, and I I put her down and turn the light thing on, and she goes from to uh she kind of turns towards me, has a smile on her face, and goes, Look at that. And then she can go to sleep for 30 minutes because she was so intrigued by this darn thing.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

But but she was quiet. I was like, Parenting is great. So, you know, before I get into the real fun of New Year's Eve, you reminded me of a positive moment before I, you know, bring us all back down to reality. We all Elliot and I also had some time to stare up at the sky. Um we were playing in the snow because man, he's been waiting for snow and there was a little bit. So we sled down this tiny little hill in our front yard, and then he said, Mom, let's let's lay down and look at the sky. So we did, and he started talking about the clouds, and then he said, Let's close our eyes and dream of more snow. It was very adorable and a lovely moment, but what's the real kid corner?

SPEAKER_02 26:21

Let's hear it.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

This is pretty simple. I let my todd up until midnight on New Year's Eve. Did he take a power nap? No power naps. So he's three and a half, so don't judge me, okay? I'm judging. I I think You're awesome. I won't need to give you any more details, but I'm going to, okay? It wasn't my finest parenting moment. But, you know, as we mentioned, we were at our good friend's house, and they have uh two daughters, similar age to Elliot. You know, one's a little younger, one's a little older, and they are like best friends. It is just so adorable.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

It's very adorable.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Um, you know, and and there was another high school age um niece there of one of our friends who was so kind to kind of watch over our kids so we could enjoy some adult time, which was amazing. Shout out, thank you. Um, we we heard the kids were gonna take a power nap. Okay, they were all in on this power nap.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

I thought Josie was genius. She sold this nap idea like unbelievably well.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

So let me tell you guys, around 9 p.m. Yeah, that's right, around nine. Like they started asking if they could blow their noise horns and is it midnight yet? And they were sleeping babies. Yeah, well, my little Lucy was attempting to sleep. She was sleeping. She did. She sleeps only in our arms, okay? So my husband held on to her for hours, but don't worry, she also woke up for midnight, guys. So my seven-month-old and my three and a half-year-old were wide awake at midnight. So, you know what? I will say it was really nice to ring in the new year with them. Um, I will just say the kids were so well behaved, they missed their power nap at 10 p.m. Um, but they were well behaved, they were having so much fun that I we barely noticed that it was midnight and our kids were up, and maybe we paid for it until today still, but we have some great pictures and some great videos.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

So the Insta story was hot, was on fire.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

We had a dance party, um, I mean, by we, the kids, and it was great, you know. If if adults we can no longer get dressed up in sequins and have a dance party, I think our kids can, and we get to watch.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

We pieced out around 9-10 because that's about when Simona was gonna turn into a pumpkin.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Yeah, so I would say Nick made um the good parenting move on New Year's.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

See, but my Insta story wasn't as good because it was Simona sleeping in her carrier. We're like, stay sleeping, stay sleeping, stay sleeping. I put a little party hat jiff on her and a little New Year's Eve. Saw that. I saw that. And it was, you know, it was cute, but it wasn't that good. And the picture wasn't that good because we didn't have any lights on. Right, which is blurry, which is why you shouldn't use an iPhone for good photography because it doesn't do low light well. It's all about the gram, Nick. Shout out to Jeff Anderson. But uh your Insta story of New Year's kids doing a dance party, and yeah, guys. Yeah, do it for the likes.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

It wasn't my uh greatest, but I don't regret it. And 2020, here we come.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

2020, here we come, no regrets.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

No regrets.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Thanks for listening this week. Check out the meal plans, all about lean meats. Check out Bridget's Surf and Turf, my uh tenderloin, no surf for me because of the allergy. Check it all out. Dinnerplusdrinks.com, click on the blog post for this episode, and you can also holla at us.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Great. Have a great week, guys.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

See you soon. Cheers.