2018 Rocks

Alternate Title: The Third Time Our Kids Stayed Up Past 10:00 in December

What happened to us?!?! Apparently bedtime was not a real thing in December. I'm sure it's completely unrelated that Dec was in bed at 6:30 tonight ...

We ended our break on a literal and figurative high note. Our New Year's Eve afternoon was spent with our college gang at the C's new house, watching the Vikes/Bears game and letting the 2 million children run around together. The house even has an indoor basketball court, which provided both an "unbreakable" zone and a sorta soundproof barrier. We had the best time catching up with the gang and learned that another baby will join our group in June. It was the best news and moved the kids' number advantage to +4 (22 adults, 26 kids). Holy smokes, we've grown!

Late afternoon, we headed home, threw dinner in the oven and got some downtime before the Ps came over. They are our NYE people and it was our turn to host. They had been at the college gang party too and the littles were definitely feeling the effects of no naps and lots of playing. But boy did they rally!

On a whim, we asked B&C to bring Guitar Hero over for the Wii. Best choice ever! We didn't expect the kids to have much interest and we were very wrong. Once we found the beginner setting, Jack, Cooper, and Fiona had the best time playing guitar or bass. Brad and Cheryl took turns playing guitar as well. And Mike did most of the singing. Although Brad and I took a turn or two as well.

 When it's 10:30 and you
are just so tired!

We rocked out until 10:45! Ten. Forty. Five. We also ran out of Fireball. And Mike, Brad, and the kids ate an entire jar of pickles. Nobody was happy when it was time to go. It seems like a unanimous decision that next year's party will be a sleepover.

By the time we got everything cleaned up, it was almost 11:30. So for the first time in quite a few years, Mike and I stayed up for the ball drop in our own time zone. It was kind of fun to sit with our last two shots of Fireball and welcome in the new year. The kids even slept in the next morning, so the main fallout of our wild party ways was finding confetti randomly throughout the house for the next couple days.

It was a great way to send out 2017. While a somewhat tumultuous year for the world, it was a great year for our little family. It was not without its bumps, but there were big steps forward for our family of six. We have high hopes for 2018 as well!

Confetti canons. Totally worth it!

Play that Funky Music, White Boy