Game Day

Yesterday we attended our niece's first birthday party. She is beautiful and full of personality and seemed to have a lot of fun at her party! While we were there, someone said, "Happy New Year's Eve," to my 5-year-old. He seemed genuinely confused when he answered, "I thought it was Game Day." My kids get very excited about staying up late and playing games on New Year's Eve. We're generally pretty strict about bed time, and staying up until 9:00 PM is a big deal at our house. So staying up "all night" is monumental!

We had a lot of fun together, and for the first time all three children made it to midnight! We made some snacks and played lots of board games. My grandmother had given the children games for Christmas, and Santa had also brought a couple of games, so we had many choices. We played Cadoo, Dominoes, Kerplunk, and Charades. Then we had a Monopoly marathon! B was the winner with hotels on her property that ran the rest of us to bankruptcy. A good time was had by all.

To make the evening even better, E lost his second tooth. He insists on pulling his own teeth out. He showed us how loose it was, went into the bathroom and came out triumphantly with a tiny white tooth in his hand. His first visitor of 2007 was the Tooth Fairy!

We ended the night by watching the newscast of the ball dropping in New York. Of course, the kids covered their eyes and groaned with disgust as the people on TV kissed at midnight! Gross!

2006 was a hard year for us as a family with the illness and death of RJ's father right after the long illness and death of his mother. But, there were some good times too, like the birth of our niece whose birthday we celebrated yesterday. We look forward to 2007 and the many adventures, challenges, and good times it has to offer. It will be a great year!

Happy 2007 to you!