New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve.  It's supposed to be a thing you know.  A big deal, a significant day, out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new sort of experience.  Turns out, it's just another day, and in this case, another day of having the children home with little to do.  We are nearing the end of the Christmas break, and quite frankly, the children miss school.  I miss school.  We wish there was something scheduled that required our getting out of our pajamas, out of the house, and away from the television.

In an act of desperation, I called Tysen and asked if she wanted to bring her kids swimming with us at the rec center.  They were pretty much in the same situation as us and readily agreed.  Small problem, however.  There was a big New Year's Eve/First Night celebration happening at the rec center, so they closed to the public at 3:00pm in order to prepare.  We arrived at 2:08.  We had just long enough to get wet and then we had to get out.  I told the kids to do whatever they really wanted to do quickly because we weren't going to stay long.  They went down the slides several times, floated around and around the lazy river, and were happy to be together.  So happy, in fact, that Brandt and Blythe returned home with Tysen so they could keep playing.  At least we got out of the house.

The deer I saw in the neighbor's yard right across the street when I got home from swimming.

Shortly after 5:00pm, we met Lee, Cammie, and Aaron at Bangkok Grill for dinner.  That has sort of become something of a tradition.  We like Thai food, they like Thai food, we feel compelled to do something on New Year's Eve because it's supposed to be a thing, and that works out for all of us.  The children always eat well when we have Thai.

This year we were invited to the Drake's house for a kid oriented New Year's Eve party.  We were absolutely delighted to have something to go and do, and we all had a great time.  The Drakes had planned lots of games for the kids--octopus (pictured below), a TP game of some sort, a balloon thing with money in the balloons, a food eating relay, and a dance party with lots and lots and lots of glow sticks.  The basement ended up a disaster, but McKenzie told me they only use stuff that can be raked up at the end of the evening's activities.  The adults enjoyed talking and laughing and watching the children.  We had yummy munchies (both Elizabeth Elder and I brought roasted red pepper dip) and just a really fun time.  In attendance were: Drakes, Barruses, Elders, Morelands, Bates, Bushmans, Masons, and Seamons.  At 9:00pm we rang in the new year with Halifax and then burned a Christmas tree, our contribution to the festivities.  We used the Bradford's tree which I had hauled home a couple of days ago and which was incredibly dry.  It went up like a shot and was danced around wildly by all the children and several adults.  It was the best time we've had on NYE for a really long time.  I hope we get invited again next year.

 

 

 

Brandt's black t-shirt with glow sticks attached on the left, and Blythe's on the right.

She wanted to be able to see her face in the picture.