2011

New Year's is a hard holiday for me to be away from my family. More so than Christmas. My family has always had a big party at New Years with yummy food and as much noise, laughter and games anyone could handle. It was the one day a year we could stay up as late as we wanted, bang pots and pans as loud as we could, scream at the top of our lungs (as a 6yr old this seemed like the coolest thing ever and as a 20 yr old it was fun to remember being 6), shoot off bottle rockets dodging (or aiming) at neighboring trees, or act like a snow queen of the world for 2 minutes.

As to not spend the evening drowning my sorrows trying to join in a virtual game of shang-hi or 31 via skype we decided to throw our own party.

We invited a few friends over to ring in the new year. It really was more of a celebrate the last evening of the old year . . . . . (really what parent wants their 2-year old up past midnight?) We had a bunch of fireworks and food - we basically just sat around talking, laughing and consoling the kids that were scared of the fireworks. Ours included. {Rylee was pretty scared of the big booms which made her extra snugly.}

sparklers Here's to long naps in 2011!!

After the crowd departed Michael and I lounged out on the couch when some other friends showed up! Even at 4 hours late, I was so excited!! :) They had a stay-in babysitter for the night and joined us for games, food, more games, and MORE fireworks. Not that it would have been the end of the world, but I'm glad we weren't up til midnight alone :)

Fireworks were basically a constant sound all night, but once midnight hit, it sounded like a war zone (at least I'm pretty sure that's what a war zone would sound like). We ran outside and there were fireworks EVERYWHERE!! It was AWESOME!! Our neighbors across from our backyard put on what can only be described as a 'grand finale' every direction you looked was fireworks. It was seriously amazing. We kept going from the front yard to the back yard and I had a constant smile on my face. What a fun way to start out the new year. Here's to 2011.