Ringing in the New Year

Before it's too late to post this, I figure it's time to get the pics up from our second annual New Year's Eve party.  I love holiday parties and I love to invite friends over on any holiday because celebrating by ourselves feels lonely.  One of our RI friends hosted a New Year's party every year and we loved it so we picked up the tradition from them. 
I planned ahead this year {very unlike me} and had the boys help me get the house clean a couple days prior, knowing that my nausea would keep me from running around like a headless chicken like I typically do the day of a party.  We invited a ton of people and most ended up coming.  Chaos, good food, and games reigned supreme!
But before all that went down, our friends invited a few families over to their house on the lake for a polar bear swim.  My boys had no clue what that meant and when I told them they'd be jumping off a dock into freezing cold water they thought I was lying.  I had to explain how manly they would feel and lucky for them, there would be a hot tub to sit in afterwards. 

The plunge took place after dark {not hard to do since it's dark at 4:30pm} on their icy dock.  We made all the kids wear life jackets and it was hilarious to watch from afar as they dropped in and came up gasping, screaming, and shivering.  Marcus won the prize for swimming the farthest which wasn't far at all but he felt like he swam halfway across the lake, and Ethan won for jumping in the most.  He was crazy and kept going back for more.  It was a great way to start off the night.  

Now back to the party...

Randy kept saying, "Mel, if we're going to throw a party let's throw a party!"  I think what he meant was provide more food than could be eaten and make the biggest newspaper ball full of candy and prizes you could possibly imagine.  The kids ripped into that newspaper ball with some serious aggression and I'm still finding little pieces of wrapping paper floating around.  After that, the adults played games and visited and the kids hung out in the bonus room for the most part.  As midnight drew near everyone gathered outside, supplied with plastic champagne cups full of sparkling cider, to watch the ball of lights drop from our flag pole as Randy set off fireworks.  It was both hilarious and fun.  At midnight, the adults kissed, all the kids blew horns and threw confetti, and within twenty minutes the house was empty and my head hit the pillow.