I won't lie. New Year's Eve doesn't rank on my Top 10 list of holidays. So I've found I enjoy NYE a whole lot more when I keep it more low-key.
This year was probably one of my favorite NYE celebrations - we had two of them, and the first one was probably what made it awesome.
All day, the kids were kind of rambunctious (more than usual) and feisty, and sometime in the evening, Devn needed some personal time, so he left to run a quick errand at Walmart. While he was gone, Abby and I finished a competitive round (or 7) of Dr. Mario, and then decided to get the kids ready for bed.
When they were all in their pajamas, Devn came home from his "quick" errand, bearing gifts of celebration and jubilee! Ellee's and Will's eyes sparkled like the sparkling grape juice when their dad pulled out the party hats and blowouts to ring in the new year - at 7:30pm. He also brought home some plastic goblets for the children, while Abby pulled out the nice wine flutes for the adults - to also drink sparkling grape juice with. That's how we roll.
We passed around the blowouts and put hats on the kids and ourselves, and when the clock struck 7:32:18, we yelled, "Happy New Year!" and clinked our glasses with each other. The kids downed their drinks, practically licking their glasses clean - they like their bubbly - and spit all over their blowouts (which didn't have the whistlers at the end, so we improvised with our own homemade whistle/kazoo sounds). Then we went out on the deck (because it was, like, 60 degrees - what?!) and celebrated a little more. The neighbors were setting off some early fireworks and noisemakers, so we enjoyed the festive mood on the deck, and then came back in for bedtimes.
When the kids were asleep, the adults pulled out the games and got started on our traditional New Year's Eve celebration.
With 2 noticeable changes - one was that Devn was home, and not on-call or on his last day before going to work the next day. He was home and available to stay up with us all night! Hooray!
Second noticeable difference - I brought my jazzy red tunic dress and leggings to wear for New Year's Eve. Last year, I thought it would be fun if Abby and I got all dressed up and pretended like we were all hip and swanky...while we played games on her living room floor. But I thought of it while I was already in Arkansas, and we didn't feel like going and spending money on fancy clothes, even if it was $5 for fancy clothes circa 1987 from the Goodwill. But this year, I was prepared.
I almost chickened out though, because I didn't want to be randomly dressed up while Abby and Devn were sitting around in their pjs - so Abby ran into her room and got herself all gussied up as well, and Devn sported his "Don't hate the playa, hate the game" shirt, which seemed to work, actually. It gave us all more of a fraternity party kind of feel, so we went with it.
Yeah, don't we look like total party girls? And the bottom left picture of Abby and Devo - doesn't that totally look like a frat party picture? I thought it did. And since we're nothing like party girls or frat party-goers, they made me chuckle a bit. We're cool like that.
And with our party outfits on, we sat at the kitchen table with our cheeseball and wheat thins, Diet Coke and sparkling grape juice, and various other treats, and played games for 3 hours, while a Psych marathon played on tv in the background (sometimes I can't handle the New Year's Eve celebration broadcasts on tv. This year was one of those times). We played Monopoly Deal, Golf (the card game), Pound (also a card game), and then rang in the new year with another clinking of our glasses, some "Happy New Year" whispers (kids were sleeping, if you recall), and then played our traditional game of Yahtzee!. I got my new year's yahtzee about 20 minutes into 2012, and we called it good with the games. Devn asked if he could go to bed at that point, and we excused him from the table. Then Abby and I settled onto the couch for a quick round of Super Mario Bros, and 90 minutes later we put the controllers down and went to bed, yawning our sadness about early morning church...
It was a good New Years. And 5 days into 2012, it's been a pretty decent year as well - not counting that our heat in my house broke Tuesday (the day I came back to DC) just before the coldest day of the season came (Wednesday), and the pink nail polish stains I found on my bedspread and pillowcase when I got home - though when I first saw it, I had no idea what the pink was from and my roommates had no idea where it came from either. I received a very penitent email from my roommate's sister today, explaining how the stains came to be, which satiated my curiosity - we were nervous a bum had somehow broken into our house, Goldilocks style, and mess up my belongings. Luckily, we now know no intruders were involved. But if you discount those 2 concerns (the heat got fixed last night, thankfully), the year's been okay to me. Let's hope the next 361 days just get better and better.
Also, I haven't thought of any New Year's resolutions quite yet (because I don't actually ever make real ones with the intent to follow through with them). But maybe I'll get inspiration from other people's resolutions and steal them for myself. Oh, I guess I did make one - in talking with Abby, I decided I was going to be more mindful, more meditative this year. Turn off the music and noise a little more, and give myself time to ponder and meditate more. *Music blaring as I type this...* It was an exercise I did in college, when my Eastern Philosophies professor gave us extra credit for meditating daily. I felt better when I did it. So I'm going to try to unplug and meditate a little more often. We'll see how it goes. I also need to write in my journal more, and with 8am church on Sundays now (gag), I should be able to get back into my pattern of at least weekly writing ever Sunday. Maybe I'll also try to be a nicer person, but we'll see if I can fit it in, with these other resolutions to worry about, too.
Any other ideas/thoughts/suggestions?
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