Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!!!

How do you celebrate the ending of the old year and the coming of the new? I'm sure everyone has their traditions. Laura has told me that her Mum goes and greets the new year as the sun rises. She takes pictures as the sun is just coming up. I have seen some of her lovely pictures of the sun as it is just beginning to come up over the sea and it is really beautiful. What a fun way to document the coming of a new year and all the hope that instills!

We, however, are not so original. Not wanting to take their lives in their own hands Danielle and Megan opted to stay home instead of traveling at least an hour and a half to the young adult dance. (Personally I am grateful for that decision.) So we decided to have our own party!!!

At about 5 pm we started out with cheese sticks, poppers, quiche and of course beef stick and cheese, followed by cream puffs. After all if you are going to start a diet and excercise regime the next day you better get all the bad stuff out of the way the night before.

The night was filled with games of Plext, catch phrase and a viewing of the latest Mummy movie. Still it wasn't time for the new year to show up. So we decided on a competition to see who would be the champion of Dr. Mario 64. It was a heated battle with close calls and suicides but in the end Danielle won the title.

At the stroke of midnight it was a mad rush up the stairs to pull out our crackers. Josh was upstairs with his friends so we shared the tradition with them. They weren't as excited as we were about pulling the ends and making them pop to see what exciting prize was inside. We found pens and keychains, tape measures and crowns. Then we all shared sparkling cider. Not too exciting for some but just right for us. Oh! Of course there were fireworks!!

Bein close to the reservation we could hear several explosions during the evening as different devices were lit off. It wasn't until the actual new year came in that several neighborhoods around us had fireworks go off. Not as impressive as the fourth of July, but still kind of cool.

Of course after the cider we ran back down and started our Dr. Mario competition again. Josh and his friends finished thier movie. Everything wound down about 1 am. Josh had to go to work early and clean up needed to be done. Even though it didn't seem all that late it must have been too late for Molly. She kept falling asleep on Marks lap during Dr Mario and snoring so loudly we couldn't concentrate on the game!!!

Family and friends, sharing our love, that's what it's all about. I hope the new year brings love and happiness and greater appreciation for each other.