Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all had a great celebration last night.  We had a good night, but pretty low key.  We ended up not going anywhere this year as all of our friends seemed to be out of town.  David and Ana were both determined to stay up late to bring in the new year with us.  David made it all the way last year, but Ana dropped out after 10:00.  So this year there was no deterring her from her goal.  They got ready for staying up late by taking a nap in the afternoon, or what they termed, "A sleeping party under Ana's bed".  Yes, it was as successful as it sounds.  No sleeping actually took place, but they were mostly quiet under Ana's bed for the majority of two hours.  Then as I was making supper, I declared that no fun would take place tonight until they helped get the house cleaned up.  So they cheerfully cleaned things up while I finished making supper.

Once supper was finished and out of the way, we got out some games and played together as a family.  We tried to pick some games that Abby could join in with us and that the older two wouldn't hate.  We are all sick of Candyland - except Abby, of course, who could play it all day long everyday.  So we spent an hour or so playing games.  We also got out our special treat for the night - bottles of fancy cream soda for everyone.  They were all so excited that they each got a whole bottle to themselves.  We listened to them exclaim over and over about how much they liked this pop and that they wished we could get it more often.  And, wow, this pop is SOOOOO good!  Then Abby, who we let stay up an hour past her bedtime, got to watch a kid movie (Bob the Builder) that she's been wanting to watch for a long time.  We packed her off to bed after that and then to help pass the time until midnight, we got out some puzzles to do.

Here are Aaron and David working hard on their world puzzle.  This picture is amazing because Aaron HATES doing puzzles.  He stuck with it for an hour or so.  It was very impressive.  Once he gave up, he brought over his laptop beside us while we working on our various puzzles and did some writing. 

Ana was determined to stay awake.  About 11:00 she started feeling VERY tired.  The last hour or so until midnight she lay around in various spots on the floor with her blanket wondering how many more minutes until midnight.  But she made it.  At midnight, we all cheered and wished each other a happy new year.  Then Ana promptly said, "Good, now I can go to bed!" and off she ran upstairs and went to bed.

Here's a close up of the world puzzle that Ana took.  It helped her pass the time to give her the camera for a bit to take pictures.

A picture of me courtesy of Ana. I had finished my own puzzle at this point and moved on to help David with his.

And here we are this morning.  Abby didn't want to be left out of the puzzle fun, so she got out her own puzzle to do this morning.  She really loves doing them and will spend hours working on one puzzle until she gets it all done.  I'm always impressed with how she keeps working and doesn't give up or become discouraged.  I guess she did not inherit Aaron's puzzle putting together attitude. 

So our plans for New Year's Day are nothing spectacular.  Aaron has left to go play games with the boys for the rest of the day.  I am extremely happy to not be involved with this.  These are games where you sit and think for three hours before you move and attack someone, where one turn takes all morning, where the entire game MIGHT be finished by the end of the day, where you have to then sit around and dissect every move everyone made once the game is finally over and hash out all the finer parts and glories of the game. I despise these games and refuse to play them.  I have tried playing them before so I would be considered a good wife.  But I usually sit there wishing I was doing anything else, like stabbing myself with a knitting needle.  That would be more fun. 

Anyway, Aaron is off having himself a joyous time.  I am home enjoying a quiet day to do what I want.  The year 2010 is now officially over.  It was a very good year.  I think 2011 will be even better.  Have a great day!