We sat around the table and laughed like children, shouting with glee phrases like "dump," and "peel," and "banana!" The competition was fierce of course, and we teased one another mercilessly, all the while toasting with wine and champagne. Such nostalgia in those sounds - fun and hope and memories galore. It was a first for me, ringing in a new year with family game night at home, but I'd happily label it tradition and spend many future new year's eve nights exactly the same.
Dick Clark and his New Year's Rockin Eve provided a festive backdrop as we sat around the fire and chatted (J-Lo's outfit, WTF), laughed at our combined SIX dogs and their antics and watched the littles among us get gussied up and excited to see one year bleed into another.
In between game night festivities and the ball dropping, a couple of us entertained the kids upstairs and playtime morphed into a game that required each munchkin to jump over a large basketball and pose for the photographer (yours truly). Destined to end badly, it still provided a fun photo opp (and a lot of laughs):
The game began to go south right about...NOW:
And....yep, we're done. (he was completely fine - just a bit stunned I think)
Pardon the lack of my usual photo of the ball dropping. My last memory is 11:42. I opened my eyes after that and it was 12:35. For the first time in my life (that I can remember), I was asleep when 2009 yielded to 2010. I'm still deciding what this means and whether or not it is a good sign for the year ahead. For now, I'm going with YES - and maybe it means I'll be quicker to relax? Here's hoping.
New Year's Day brought frigid temps and a beautiful, steady snow. Most of the time, we enjoyed the icy views from inside, snuggled by the fire, but we did venture out to let ALL the kids (fur and human) enjoy a little romp in the snow.
In summary, we enjoyed each other's company and relaxed with peaceful, wintry views like this one:
A few of us partied 'til we dropped:
And we celebrated a new year and all the light and wonder it will bring.
I can't wait to see what's next. And you?
*I am in the process of uploading my full set of photos from the weekend, so if you want to see more, you can click on the photos link at the top of the site and see all of our adventures (I will hopefully have everything uploaded by tomorrow). Especially if you can't get enough of my adorable niece who ALWAYS obliges my need for a photo shoot. She's fierce that way.
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