Happy New Year!
There’s still a party going on downstairs, and Chris and
Martin are continuing an attempt at an all-night gaming marathon, but Dawn fell
asleep before midnight; was woken up to ring in the New Year; and promptly fell
asleep again before being moved up to my room.
I came upstairs then too, but am winding down, and starting off the New
Year with a little bedtime computing.
Since the usual parties at the Inn and Sheldon’s Pub are
going on tonight, our little family celebration probably won’t make the top ten
best New Year’s Eve events in Witch Falls, but I loved spending the evening
with our family and a few friends; and there’s the added bonus that Aunt Leanne
wasn’t able to do any matchmaking with me tonight. That probably worked out even better for
Michael too because Lisa was going to be at the Inn party along with Nora, Tim,
and some of the other kids in our class.
I’m sure that Dawn and I will get the full party report from Violet in
the morning if we have time to do that while everyone is getting ready to head
home in the morning.
Not being around Michael didn’t keep Aunt Leanne from
teasing me about him a couple of times, including once at midnight; but I was
quite happy to go with hugs and kisses with my favorite guys – including Dad,
Ethan, and Grandpa. There was more than
enough mushiness with the couples in our family, and tweenie romances were not
needed or wanted. Let’s drop that line
of thought, and go back to the beginning of the day.
Tai Chi was short and sweet this morning because Ethan,
Ehlana, and Jayden decided they were ready to party early. Breakfast was cereals, fruit salad, and Olde
Bakery goodies like muffins, bagels, and cinnamon buns; and the mini-buffet was
open for self-service from eight until nine-thirty. Chris and Martin barely made it downstairs
before Mom and Dad started packing everything up. Dawn and I were drafted for some clean-up
work both in the kitchen and in the lounge.
By the time we were finished our work, snow was falling
outside. Not really coming down or
anything, but we do have somewhere around three inches of the white fluffy
stuff on the ground by now. There was
definitely enough for some afternoon snow fun; and even some of the grown-ups
came out to play with us for a while.
There were snowball fights, a couple of smallish snowmen have appeared
in our back yard down by the river; and all of the younger kids were pulled
around the yard in two of our sleds.
Rowen, Dawn, and I went to take a look at the possibilities for going
sledding down the ridge, but there just wasn’t enough snow on the hills to make
that an option yet. Rowen and I will
check on that again tomorrow, but we’ll probably have to wait for more snow.
I’d say it was mostly a lazy, fun day at the Proctor house,
and I guess it mostly was for the kids; but the parents ended up doing a fair
bit of work. There were two more meals
to put together after breakfast; a party to get ready for in the evening; loads
and loads of laundry; and the added bonuses of shoveling driveways and
sidewalks, and hauling in enough wood to keep the fireplace in the living room
going all evening. Dawn and I weren’t
completely off the hook for the work, but our help with snow shoveling had the
ulterior motive of getting more snow for our snowmen and snowball fights; and
the lunch clean-up was easy thanks to using recyclable dinnerware, glasses, and
cutlery.
After the dinner clean-up was finished, it was mostly play
time for everyone. Rowen had spent the
afternoon with us, and her parents came over after closing the store and
getting something to eat. Patrick had
been spending the day with Scott, and he was dropped off later when the
Faulkners stopped in for a little visit before going on to the New Year’s Eve
party at Brent and Sharon Palmer’s home.
We had quite a few cameo visits like that, and sometimes the kids or
teens would come upstairs to the lounge to hang out with us while their parents
were sharing a cup of cheer and a chat in the living room. That occasionally made things a bit crowded,
but it was non-stop fun too.
Rowen, Dawn, and I played games with the five younger kids;
there was video gaming in the lounge; a New Year’s Eve music simulcast from
parties around the world on the stereo; and more snacks and drinks than even
Chris, Martin, and the rest of the visiting teens could demolish in one
night. There were only two times all
night when the lounge was empty. The
first was a little mini-buffet at eleven, and the second was when we all
gathered in the living room to welcome in twenty-thirteen together.
This wasn’t as big of a deal for the kids in the room, but
our parents and grandparents were more than a little nostalgic tonight about
watching Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve for the first time since he passed
away. There was a tribute show earlier
that they didn’t watch, and more clips and tributes during the live
broadcast. I’m fairly sure than none of
our grandmothers have the Bieber fever, or even know who most of the artists
performing tonight are, but then the channel probably got changed shortly after
I came up to bed anyway.
The midnight hugs and kisses seemed to be more fun for the
married adults in the room; but Aunt Grace, and all of us kids and teens, had
fun too – though Chris, Martin, and Patrick pretended they didn’t. An intermission from the party in the living
room followed, and while the parents were busy putting all of the younger kids
to bed, Patricia ran Rowen and Patrick home; and as I mentioned already, Chris
and Martin took over the lounge, and I came up to my room then too.
I’m going to wrap this up shortly, but let’s end this entry
with a little New Year’s resolution fun.
Aunt Deborah’s resolution is to have her baby in
twenty-thirteen – like she has a choice!
Aunt Grace plans on completely changing her life; leave her
job; move from the city to a small town; become CEO of a risky start-up
bio-tech company; and get married to a guy who is nuts enough to have the same
plans. She’d like to bring her personal
trainer here too, but since there isn’t a health club in Witch Falls; that
probably won’t happen.
Grandpa’s resolution is to have more fun than last
year. When you read this some day,
Grandpa, I’d just like you to know that you’ll have more fun than you could
have imagined; and yes, Ethan, Ehlana, and I knew.
Aunt Leanne wouldn’t tell me what her resolution was, and
I’m more than a little scared about that.
Mom and Dad are hoping to have more fun too – and less work. We’ll see about adding some more fun into
their year, but the less work thing isn’t going to happen for them anytime
soon.
There were others, but I won’t list them all here. I don’t really have any New Year resolutions,
but when it was my turn tonight, I just mentioned that I’m going to learn to
play piano this year. I know it’s
boring, but resolutions are supposed to be about things you want to – and can –
change in your life. The only thing I
can think of that I’d really like to change would be to not have Aunt Leanne’s
volunteer matchmaking services, but there’s no real point in making a
resolution I have no control over; and I certainly wasn’t going to give her
more ammunition for future teasing by suggesting it tonight.
Okay, I’m done for tonight; and ready to get some sleep.
Say ‘goodnight, Cassie’.
“Goodnight, Cassie.”
