New Years Eve (Day and Night!)

New Years Eve was a very full day around here!  Jennifer and I spent most of the day cooking and baking for the evening gathering at our house.  It didn't feel like work, though... it was wonderful to have that time together like the old days.  She and I work well together and have put out some pretty awesome meals in the past!  :)

The kids were excited about some more snow cover and made the most of it by spending hours sledding in the afternoon.  Of course, they don't sled like regular people... they sled behind the pickup.  :)  It started out with just Jackson, Jonathan and Zack; but soon grew to include Susanna, Hannah, Rachel & Stephen (who had arrived late the night before), Matthew, Anna, James and Arayna - with Daddy driving the truck.  Quite a crew!  I kept running to the front or back door to take photos of them as they whizzed by.  I sure can remember when that was about the most fun thing in the world.  (now, it just looks cold!!  I am old!!)  :)  I am sharing some photos within this post, but as always, you can see an entire photo album by clicking here...   :)

Jonathan, Zack, Matthew, Susanna, Anna

on sleds... Rachel, Stephen, Jackson, Zack, Arayna

in the back of the truck... Anna, Jonathan, Hannah, Susanna, James, Matthew

Jennifer promised Macie she would make her a snow angel...

for Macie!!  :)

Around 6:00 pm people started arriving.  Everyone here on the hill, along with the Matheney family, joined us for 'trashy hors d'oeuvres' and snack foods.  It is a tradition on New Years Eve that we indulge in lots of dips, chips, cheese & crackers, desserts and other goodies like little smokies and hoppin' john.  Matheneys classed up the place by bringing ham and turkey.  :)  They are so good!!

Another NYE tradition is to play games.  This year we played Rollick (a new game for us and a complete HIT!!!) and Buzz Word.  Rollick is Charades, but kind of backwards, in that only one person guesses while the rest of their team all tries to act out the clue.  Trust me, it is a lot of fun, especially if you have a good sized group.

Melina, Megan, Hannah and Jackson are up... with Stephen trying to guess.

Now it's Susanna, Arayna, Candace and Matthew's turn - with Anna guessing.

This team was incredible!  They were all mind readers and worked together instantly all night!  

this was cute... they were trying to portray 'Prom Night' for Melina

I LOVE Megan's prom queen tiara - (she was prom queen at her prom last year!)

Buzz Word is a good game as well, but it took us awhile to figure out the rules.  Maybe we were tired? It almost got funny that we couldn't figure it out.  Finally, we just jumped in and started playing and it turned out to be a very fun game.

These photos that Jonathan took crack me up... we are all trying VERY HARD to figure this out...

Not sure we are getting it yet???   :D

Finally, we just jumped in to play - and had fun!  

Rachel made a batch of Butterbeer which was absolutely yummy and rich!  (I need to get that recipe written down from her and post it here on the blog.)

We watched the ball drop first on east coast time at 11:00 pm.  That is our safety net ever since we missed the ball drop one year when Jonathan was little and had to get up at 2:00 am for the pacific time zone ball drop.  Never again...   :)

Shortly after that, Jennifer said her good-byes as she was leaving early the next morning for a very long drive back home.  Everyone lined up to give her hugs and say good-bye.  We are all so thankful she made the trip!

not a zombie apocalypse... everyone rushing to give Jennifer hugs.   :)

saying good-bye to Jennifer

Don't go, Jennifer!  Don't go!   :)

Adults started nodding off and winding down, but the kids kept going... and going... and going.   :)  All I know is the next morning I saw this photo posted on Facebook.  I was way asleep by this time!

Melina and Jonathan - too cute!!

2012 was a very good year, but we are all looking ahead to 2013 with great joy and anticipation.  Happy New Year to all of you!