New Year's Eve

We celebratedNew Year's Eve all day long!  We went to lunch on High Street with Chris, Jen, and Zander to a place called Chelsea.  It was delicious and very American tasting which is so satisfying here.  We ran into more friends while there and had ice cream and visited a while.  Bruce and I agreed that it feels like you really LIVE somewhere when you start running into people you know while you are out and about. Kiki slept through all of it- she just needed her nap so she could party all night long. 

The Hables came over for swimming and dinner.  My kids have completely enjoyed celebrating every imaginable holiday at the pool- a white Christmas is going to be a hard sell from now on, unless the "white" is ocean surf or sandy beaches.

Derek showing his good side.  There was a small incident at ward ball that morning, meaning he had some new stitches in his lip for the New Year. 

Kiki insisted on her picture being taken.  In the last few weeks she has started to seem so grown up to me. 

We ended the year on McDonald's hamburgers, then headed across the street to the Landry's for some dessert and fireworks.  New Year's Eve is a big deal here, and fireworks are super cheap- as in 10p (23 cents) for giant bottle rockets- so it was pretty intense outside.  The kids had so much fun.

Baby Hannah was only slightly traumatized by the racket.

That is a firecracker around their necks.  It went on, and on, and on.  Also, in case you were thinking pyromaniacs were always men, allow me to introduce Kristina Landry (with her husband Mark).  She loves fire, fireworks, firecrackers, flames, and the like.  My kids worship her.

We were spent by 10:00, and took our tired kids home for bed, but the partying continued into the wee hours.  I happened to be up at midnight, at the entire sky was full of fireworks.

My usual view.

My New Year's Day view.
All residual smoke.