Happy New Year's!

 This year we spent New Year's Eve and Day at home.  And you know what?  It was kind of fun! 

On New Year's Eve day, we had a new family over for lunch that will be moving into our neighborhood and our ward at church in just a couple of weeks.  They have 4 kids who are all basically the same ages and genders as our oldest 4, and it was really nice getting to know them and seeing all the kids get along.  We are excited to have another family from church so close by!

Since neither Alex nor Jane napped while the friends were over, it made it pretty easy to give them an early bedtime and put them out of the running for staying up until midnight.  For the older 3, however, we had promised long ago to let them ring in the New Year and -- after blackmailing everyone into showering or bathing in exchange for staying up -- we spent the night hanging out and watching TV.  It was rather nice.  After finishing up an episode of "Studio C" {a BYU TV show which the kids really LOVE -- kind of a kid-friendly and BYU-cultured version of an SNL type show}, we did some New Year's Mad Libs and I had the kids fill out a sheet I typed up reviewing the the past year and looking forward to the new one.  To say it was entertaining to read their answers is an understatement.  Hahaha.  

{I filled one out with Alex and Jane today.}

ETHAN

GRACE

SOPHIE

 

JANE 

ALEX

 

Once the kids had finished obliging my request for some end-of-the-year reflection, we popped some popcorn and let the kids watch a Drake and Josh Christmas movie while Scott and I went head to head in the Bananagrams session of the century.  Hahahaha.  Not really, but seriously -- this game is ADDICTIVE.  And really fun. 

 We devised our own scoring system and agreed to play until whoever got to 50 first.  And we totally tied!  {Although, for the record, I won our tiebreaker round.}   :)

By the time the movie was over there was only a little bit of time left before we all watched the ball drop at midnight.  I'm not sure if this dropping ended up being a bit anti-climactic to the kids or not, but once it was done, they headed up to bed without too much complaint.  And the older ones even slept in a bit this morning!  Unfortunately, the little ones were up bright and early but Scott came to my rescue and let me sleep in while he got them set up downstairs.  Halfway through the morning, I remembered the Pop-Its and noisemakers I had bought yesterday and forgotten to give to the kids and after handing them over they had a grand old time playing with them outside.  In their pajamas.  Hahaha.

The rest of the day was a free-for-all.  With it being the last day of vacation before school started back up again, I kind of gave the kids free reign to do whatever they wanted.  As a result, a lot of Wii was played, Grace watched Drake and Josh pretty much all day long on the iPad, and everyone had a good time doing whatever else they found to do.  All in all, it was a good day.  Tomorrow, on the other hand, just might be horrendous.  Let's just say NO ONE {but me} is excited about our "No Junk January" which starts tomorrow.  Sugar Detox and Electronic Detox here we come!  Mwahahahaha.  Here's to a bright and happy new year!!!