Happy New Year! Happy New Dish!

Boy o boy, did we have a good time over New Year's!  It was our first New Year's celebration with kids and it was magical!  Just kidding.  It was a night much like every other night, but we spent it at Grandma A's house.  The boys were fed and wrestled to bed.  Speaking of feeding, here are a couple 'foodie' shots you haven't seen yet:

Nathan blowing raspberries with his veggies at Princess Juliana Airport in St. Maarten

Matthew now puts his hand in his mouth after EVERY BITE!

Once the boys were finally asleep, Steve and I rung in the New Year with his family playing euchre and killer scrabble, watching football and Dick Clark - er, Ryan Seacrest's?- New Year's Rockin' Eve, followed by a kiss and me immediately retiring at 12:01!  Who in their right mind stays up till midnight when the babes are asleep by 8?  Okay, one was up till 9, but you know what I mean.

Here's a funny New Year's Eve story: I made a cheese ball for the party that was quite delish, and my mom loaned me her pretty chip and dip bowl to take to my mother-in-law's.  Well, Someone Who Will Remain Unnamed put the bowl in the refrigerator's door-shelf area, then proceeded to open the door and the dish dropped on the floor, breaking the edge of the leaf off. GRRR!  This is probably a health hazard, but the dip was so good, we decided to scoop out the fragments and still serve the cheese ball.  The broken edge wasn't very noticeable and an unsuspecting guest was enjoying the dip when she suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, no!  What's on that cracker?  Did I break a tooth?"  Utterly humiliated, I had to admit what happened and that she probably was eating a shard of broken porcelain.  Needless to say, she moved on to another cheese ball.  I on the other hand, devoured most of my cheese ball.

Even funnier?  I knew my mom used the dish at every holiday and get-together she hosted, so I spent an hour searching the internet for a replacement dish. Someone Who Will Remain Unnamed must not be the only person who's broken this bowl because I found chip plates sans bowl for sale, but only one set.  I determined that paying 57% of the sale price for shipping was beyond my budget and confessed Someone Who Will Remain Unnamed's discretion to my mom, praying it wasn't a family heirloom.  She laughed and said, "Finally I have a reason to throw this dish away!  I took it out of Grandma's garage sale years ago because I never had one!  I hate this dish!"  Utterly amazed - and relieved - I learned the only reason she used that dish at every party was because it was the only one she had.  Guess what she's getting for her next birthday?

Broken Dish Cheese Ball

1 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened

2 small packages of chipped beef, chopped small

1 bunch of green onions, sliced

1 tsp. worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. lemon juice

mix it all together and let it chill before the party.

Don't drop the dish!