New Year's Eve

The Annual Ball Family New Year's Eve Party was another success.  This year was a much smaller crowd because many families were out of town and our friend group keeps shrinking as people move away.  But don't worry, the giant newspaper ball was bigger than ever.  Randy still doesn't know how to level down on anything.  There are two rules in this game and the first is no crying allowed.  I can't remember the other rule.  Rule #1 got broken several times over so I decided we are done with the future newspaper balls.  

Seriously I was so annoyed at kids crying because they didn't get as many prizes as they wanted or didn't get a chance to rip apart the ball because they didn't roll doubles with the dice.  I thought long and hard about it.  Do the kids (mine included) really have no emotional resilience?  Sure seems like it.  Are the kids really that spoiled that they don't know how to respond when they don't get what they want?  Possibly.  But the newspaper ball is a crowd favorite.  Randy says we can just cancel it.  I think we will give it another go but with much fewer prizes and see if that helps.  Some kids walked away with their arms full of gifts (mostly junk but a few gift cards) and others hardly got anything.  I think we will do it next year and see if doing less prizes actually helps.  We used to do less and no one lost their minds or shed tears.  I'm writing all this down so I remember.  It's my own little social experiment to see if our kids really are as bad off as they seem! 

I escaped upstairs for a minutes to see what was going on.  I never know what I'm going to find and was pleasantly surprised to see things weren't being destroyed.

Ethan and his girlfriend Halle

Randy and Barb came back to visit and it was so fun to see them!  My favorite part of the whole night was watching each of my boys walk into the kitchen and when they saw Barb, their faces just lit up.  They all went over and gave her a hug (except Henry of course).  It made me so happy.  They really are like adopted grandparents.  Cedar City is lucky to have them. 

I didn't get any pictures of the fireworks and ball drop.  I was too busy helping people light their lanterns.  But there were fireworks and a ball drop and it was amazing like it is every year.  

We got the Christmas cards hung on December 30th this year so I didn't feel bad about keeping them up until Valentine's Day.  I'm actually surprised by how much my boys love looking at them.  Henry doesn't know most of the people so he'd take one card down at a time, bring it to me, and ask me how we knew that family.  So tender, right?  And surprising.  We love our friends and family!

This is a terrible picture of the annual polar bear plunge that our friends host each year.  The video of people jumping in, practically on top of each other was pretty epic.  There were soooo many people there.  I think Landon won $20 for jumping in and staying in the longest.  

You couldn't pay me to sit in that crowded hot tub!

Henry begged to go to an indoor trampoline place during the break.  Man, I hate those places.  It was pure chaos and they were struggling to have enough employees there so Marcus finally organized a dodgeball game and everyone thought he worked there.  I also removed the sign that said the drop slide was closed so my kids could use it.  They had a great time and we didn't get in trouble for breaking unnecessary rules. Win!

Landon had his last Stars lacrosse tournament in San Diego.  Randy has had fun taking him to his tournaments and it's a win.  When I go on these things it's never a great experience returning home to the chaos my absence caused.  Landon is taking a break from the Stars team for a bit and focusing on his high school team.  He's also training to be a ref so he can make some good money on the weekends.  Gotta love that!