BAM! It's 2015!

Is it just me, or every time New Year's rolls around do you think, "Man!  That year went by so fast, it can't be New Year's already!"  But then you start to think about everything that happened in the past year and it seems so long ago.  Time is funny like that I guess.

So anyhoo, enough philosophizing.  Once the Christmas mayhem wore down, my kiddos started lamenting that we weren't in Utah with cousins and how boring New Year's was going to be by ourselves.  (No pressure!)  I wanted to come up with some sort of awesome New Year's bash for our crew, but what? I'm not good at party planning (that is one of my awesome sister Laura's talents).  But I can copy! :)  So, I did a miniaturized version of Laura's awesome New Year's bash from last year.  We did appetizers for dinner: spinach dip, cowboy salsa, buffalo wings, shrimp, veggies & dip - YUM!

There were games to be played . . . a mean game of Hungry Hippos followed by Carcassonne.

I also had the girls fill out the highlights of 2014 and list a couple things they want to do in the New Year.

Next we watched a movie with Banana Splits for dessert.

Aly joined up with us after attending her youth progressive dinner and, with just a few minutes before midnight, it was time to don our New Year's gear, complete with hats, blowers, and glow in the dark butterfly masks.  Analise's leaked so it looked like she had glow in the dark tears streaming down her face.  Lovely.

And, for the grand finale, we went out onto the front porch to bang our pots and pans, screaming like a bunch of lunatics!  We had saved one humongo firework from this summer and watched her explode (multiple times) into the night sky.  It was quite the spectacle.  

So, I'm thinking . . . success!  Of course, the highlight for me was my New Year's kiss. ;)

And then there's always the question: Now What?  Well, we spent the next few days recovering from staying up so late and trying to get back onto a schedule.  Chris and I went on a couple dates, we've reinstated family game night, and we're trying to be a little better in the new year.  Of course there's always the usual "having a hard time letting go of Christmas" relapses, as demonstrated by Kate using Kylie as her personal reindeer and random singing of Christmas carols still going on at our house.

The girls may not have been excited to go back to school, but it was time.  As awesome as the holidays are, there's something cleansing about putting away all the decorations and starting fresh. I'm also kind of in this "seize the day" mode ever since Aly announced on New Year's that she is graduating high school in 2020.  What?!?  Only five more years?!?  So, there's no better time than now to make things happen - jump in with both feet, be your best, uplift those around you, and let your loved ones know how much you care. We are excited for what this new year has in store and the adventures yet to be.  Hooray for 2015!