Rachel and Sarah decorated the whiteboard.

Love chalkboard markers – decorate the pantry door.

I posted all sorts of pictures on Facebook from our (infamous?) New Year’s Eve party, but Joshua isn’t on FB these days and he sweetly asked/begged/entreated that we start blogging again.

It was wonderful having Timothy and Joshua home for Christmas

It’s 2013 and I would love to begin blogging again. Spending Christmas with Mamie (my mom) and Joshua (home from college) made me realize how precious it is to capture some of the big and little events of our lives and share them.

Time for some Mexican Train!

For the past several years we’ve hosted an open house style New Year’s Eve party. We invite friends, make lots of food, clean like crazy, set out games and then enjoy the hours until midnight. This year was no different. The guest list grew and grew until I was both worried I had forgotten someone important/special and concerned that our house wouldn’t hold everyone.

One of the best things about the party was having all the kids/teens/college students gathered around playing games and laughing.

Thankfully teenagers are willing to crowd in on the couches and also sit on the floor, and little ones are happy to run around in the garage (cleaned and organized and stocked with Nerf guns and Wii games). There was plenty of food, laughter and games. I think we had games going in several rooms of the house and food spread over the kitchen table and counter tops.

Daniel and Mamie made a delicious Bûche de Noël for the party.

The men hid upstairs in their own game room.

Ahhh, it was a lovely party. We were delighted to have the King family visiting from Germany. And one of the best moments was when some guests (love you, Debbie and Tung) arrived AFTER midnight. We gleefully (loudly) counted down the New Year AGAIN. We talked, laughed, and ate our way well into 2013.

Robert (here from Germany) and Katie.

Time for a hug – Allison, Heather and Hannah

Ringing in the new year!

Grace helped with the countdown.

This year I stole an idea from Pinterest for a New Year’s Eve balloon countdown. We filled 13 balloons with little pieces of paper and marked the balloons with a time (from 6pm to 12:00) and taped them around the house. At each half an hour we popped a balloon and followed the instructions written on the paper.

Some of the activities:
1) Gather in the kitchen and sing “O Come All Ye Faithful”
2) Tell one thing you are thankful for
3) Hand out a mini candy cane to all the children
4) Share a goal for 2013
5) Stop and pray for LC3 (our church)

I LOVED this idea and am definitely including it in our New Year’s Eve traditions. Next time I will be more careful in planning the timing of the different instructions and I will throw in some more silly ones for the kids.

Sarah, Lizzie, Ceara, Hannah, Emma, Julia and Tarah pose for a picture.

Several years ago we had so much food leftover we had a New Year’s party AFTER the New Year’s Eve party. One night of games and friends just wasn’t enough. Another year Joshua was leaving for a trip to Africa and we had to move our celebration back a bit.

Sarah, Jenny, Allison, Rachel and Heather – beautiful on the inside and out.

Who knows what 2013 will hold.

Happy New Year!

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