Once again we toasted to the start of a new year!
2025 Should be an easy number to remember although it's hard to believe we're already a quarter of the way through the 21st century!

Once again the 'oliebollen' were made by the master oliebollen-chef:

                                                

To shake our traditions up a little we only made half a batch this year and added another dutch favorite to the equation ... appel-beignets/appelflappen, which are basically slices of apple deep-fried in a batter similar to that of pancakes.
Sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar they are really delicious!




As always we watched the Rose Parade on TV, 'all the way' from Pasadena, CA.
(When we were traveling the States this used to be the case, now we're actually fairly 'close').
Although we never went to the parade we know the area well and it always brings back good memories of sunny California ..

                                 

The floats were stunning as usual and the day sunny and warm, with temps in the low 70s!

In our neck of the woods this last week was still extremely rainy, not a day went by without some and most days it rained pretty much the.. whole .. day .. long!
 

Every now and than we had a little break during which I took some fast walks and snapped a few pictures but those moments were few and far between:              

      

The trees in this last picture almost seem to they have leaves, as green as they are, but that's actually moss.
Really anything in Oregon that stands still for a couple of minutes in winter will be covered in moss .. no kidding!

We see little wildlife although this small group of Quail comes by in the morning every now and than:

                               

And the Red-winged Blackbirds are still hanging around.
When they show up, always in a large flock, they make short work of all the seeds in the feeders:

               

                                               


In an attempt to somewhat keep them away, and give the small birds a chance to have at least some of the food, I ordered two of these special feeders that have cages around them.
(Another Temu buy).

                       

They've only just arrived and it looks like they work, although some of the more limber blackbirds still manage to reach through the gaps.

These little Pine Siskins have no problem at all to get inside the cages.

And that's it for this week, life is back to 'normal' again and we're in that time of the year that nothing much is happening for a while.
I'm going to take down the decorations after the weekend, although I may leave the outside lights up for a while longer.

I finally finished my Christmas puzzle, the one of Santa's workshop, which took me a while in between all the festivities.
Oh well, better late than never ..

         

O, I almost forgot, of course we had our 'lucky Black-eyed Pea soup' for dinner on the 1st!
Besides supposedly bringing luck it's delicious eats!