I love even numbered years!
I don't know why, but they seem to be my favorite.
I was more than happy to say goodbye to 2013...
Not that it was a particularly bad year or anything. In fact, it was pretty awesome.
We have never been big NEW YEARS celebrators.
Brent feels it is one of the "pointless" holidays.
(he thinks this of Halloween too...can you believe it?!)
Anyways, try as I might I have not rubbed off my extreme enthusiasm for celebrating anything possible. That being said I was pretty happy with our wonderful day of putting a close to 2013.
It started the day before with some brainstorming...
We asked the boys for a list of things they would maybe like to do...
Justin was still pretty sore from his first time snowboarding so spending the night on the mountain was out!
Brayden's school turns their gym into a roller rink on the weekends and they were hosting a New Years party...again the boys did not feel like roller skating.
We all pretty much agreed a day filled with board games good food and movies was something we could all agree on.
To make August feel included in games we pulled out some that were his speed the night before New Years Eve.
He wasn't that into Ants in the pants. He got frustrated with the ants and just started shoving them into the pants.
I pulled out some props to make it a real party!
Next August game was Don't Break the Ice.
He loves this game...
could not get enough and made everyone in the house play it at least 100x.
Brent remained enthusiastic the whole time (haha)
Justin and Mitch played their Magic card game
...hours later we decided to retire the "Ice" game for the night.
Seriously
The morning of New Years Eve, my guys woke up with the same hair!
Right away August gets Justin to play the "Ice" game, while I make breakfast.
I also prepped the split pea and ham soup we were having for lunch...
Sometimes I feel like if my life flashed before my eyes I would only see the different kitchens we have had over the years. I spend way too much time cooking.
Brent arranged all the party favors we purchased.
As the day went on we decided to do SMORES in our fireplace...
Justin all decked out in his party hats and necklace
The best part of SMORES has got to be the smores face that goes along with all the melted chocolaty goodness.
Bray the UNICORN
The boys decided to play Monopoly (as previously stated I do not like this game so I opted out)
It always cracks me up how intense these games can get...
We've had several Monopoly boards over the years...a galaxy one, a sponge bob, a gold edition
Needless to say we have an assortment of pieces
The boys got finger lights and were trying to make me some pictures!
Bray and I had a little R&R during the older guys Monopoly game...
Then we made our Root beer floats
We utilized the fireplace again to make dinner. Hot dogs of course...(bacon flavored dogs) ugh, when we let the boys pick stuff out it's always novel.
I was surprised the boys all lasted until midnight. There were a few times I thought we were going to lose Bray and August. Somehow they kept it going.
We armed ourselves with noisemakers, silly string, and poppers.
Turned the TV to watch the ball drop...
(this video is pretty loud)
Justin shot the popper at me while Brent took the picture...
The mess was epic...
Cosmo did surprisingly well with all the noise and clutter.
After the shouting, favors, and kisses were done
we made our way into the kitchen to toast the New Year
We each stood in a circle and reminisced on the high points of our past year.
This was hard of course for the younger boys.
Holding on to their sparkling cider while dipping their tongues in, nodding and agreeing with what the others around them were saying.
Justin was very grateful for all the time he had been able to spend with his family throughout the year and when he turned to this next year he simply said he wanted to "make it special".
He went on talking about this being his last year of high school and other things in his life that are coming to a close.
The idea to "make it special" was wonderful to me. It summed up everything I was thinking and feeling. Time is precious. It goes so quickly.
It is important to try and hold these times we have had and anticipate having to a standard of particular signifigance.
HELLO
2014
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