Ringing in the New Year....

Here we are a bit after midnight local time.  Yes, that is right.  We made it until midnight - even my 1 year old!  Does that make me a horrible parent?  When we lived in Minnesota, I had the option of "cheating" and celebrating as we watched the ball drop live in New York City.  Now that we actually live on the East Coast, I no longer have that option.  For the record, I was prepared for V-Girl to miss out on the activities, but she just kept on going strong - so I figured why not. 

Rainman worked until midnight, so we were on our own for the festivities.  Here are some highlights of our night...

We made homemade pizzas.

We played New Year's Bingo... or Midnight Caller as my sister called it.  A-Man and S-Girl were the big winners here.  Prizes were little gumball machines I had gotten on the clearance rack for $.60 each.  Ask me if having a 3 year old and a 5 year old have unlimited access to gumballs was a smart move!

And, we played Mitts-Night Train to Georgia....

We all had fun and laughed at each other's antics in getting through another layer of wrapping paper.  S-Girl had the best technique which included heavy usage of her toes to open the package!!!  Most of the stuff you see on the floor was a result of this game - except for the breakfast cereal and the straw - not sure how they got there.  Usually you can eat off of my floors - just ask V-Girl!  ;)

A-Girl was the big winner in this game and in typical A-Girl fashion, she proceeded to divide the spoils equally amongst her siblings!  This was another clearance rack find of a book of Laffy Taffy - sort of like the old Life Savers books for $.89.

The rest of our time that night (and for the next 2 days) was spent working on this 750 piece puzzle of 100 Mice and One Piece of Cheese.

We had our fake wine (sparking grape juice) at midnight....which apparently went to our heads....

 ...and eventually headed to bed after Rainman got home about 12:45ish.  New Year's morning, I made these which were a big hit.  We watched the Rose Parade, worked on the puzzle and spent the day in our pajamas!  It was a good start to a New Year!