For New Years we headed to my in-laws house to celebrate our second round of Christmas and New Years together.

Thursday night we treated like Christmas Eve, which at the Greene house means we each opened a present. This year the one gift per person rule seemed to have an exception: I opened two, one for me one, for baby Greene.

The next day was “Christmas”. In stockings this year we gave  grape jelly from Naple’s Grape Festival and bags of dried apple chips dehydrated from our fall crips bought at the Fall Foliage Festival. Also I placed herbs I dehydrated from our garden, in bags with a few of my recipes. And of course there were all of my baked goods.

K enjoyed her Christmas gifts too. But I think her favorite gift was a few old socks wrap around her toys, and the chance to play with them in the nice warm basement.

That night we had the Greene traditional New Years meal of Prime Rib, potatoes and salad, it was delicious.

And for dessert: I had a new baking success for this holiday season: cheesecake. I made an organic, no white sugar, gluten free cheesecake and a traditional one with graham cracker  to celebrate the new year. They turned out perfect, no cracks, not too sweet, and wonderfully creamy.

I will confess, this year I almost did not make it to midnight. We decided to play Yahtzee to pass the time and I sat their struggling to stay awake. Finally I was told to go lie down, I woke up barely in time to ring in the new year with toasts and kisses. We walked out into the brisk air to see fireworks in the distance and yelled “happy new year” to the neighbors.

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This was a laid back celebration weekend, which is probably what most of us needed after getting over colds at the end of a busy holiday season.  In between the presents and meals we played games, and sat around the living room, sharing stories, drinking tea, and listening to guitars and singing.

How did you ring in the new year?