Our Rockin' New Year's Eve

We don't really fall into the category of party animals. Every New Year's Eve, I consider moving to the west coast so we can watch the ball drop in NY at 9pm instead of waiting up until 11pm. Yes, we are lame. But that's ok :)

This year we started off New Years Eve by having Kiki and Susie join us for dinner. Kiki brought over turkey pies she brought home from a farm we used to buy them at in New England. They were super yummy; I really need to figure out how to make them :)

Kiki took off after dinner and we hung out for a bit.

I put together the five little gingerbread houses that comprised the gingerbread village I bought. This will be the last year I can use that kit as next year we'll need six houses! Eva and I divided the candy up between four plates and Eva's mouth. The kids each picked a house and Susie and I made the rounds, armed with frosting.

Kylie was the first to finish her house. She insisted on two pictures so we could see all four sides of it ~

Eva finished next. It's easier to finish decorating your gingerbread house when you eat most of the candy before it makes it to the house :)

Beth with her masterpiece ~

Jack decided all his candy pieces were little men. The candy men crawled all over his gingerbread house.

Godzilla attacked Jack's candy men.

Godzilla jr then attacked Eva's gingerbread house ~

A third Godzilla made a quick visit to Kylie's house. 

I somehow didn't get a picture of Megan's house, which is too bad because it was pretty cool! She painted the walls with frosting and made a cool circle pattern on the roof.

After gingerbread houses were done, we pulled out our party bag and fired off the poppers in it. We didn't know if anyone would fall asleep before 11pm and setting off poppers doesn't help if you are trying not to wake children up.

Jack was first. It took him a few tries to pull the string hard enough to set his off, but once he figured it out, he loved it!

Beth was next. Note the lady-like extension of her pinkie fingers ~

Eva needed a little help with hers.

Kylie did hers so fast that we didn't have time to take a good picture.

Megan was a little apprehensive about setting off something with gunpowder in it, no matter how small the amount.

She seemed to enjoy it though!

Susie got a couple of poppers too ~

When all the poppers had been fired off and all the confetti from them was cleaned up, we turned our dining room into a movie theater and watched "The Santa Clause". Hot cocoa and marshmallows were a must!

The movie finished up just in time to make our way upstairs to watch the ball drop in NYC. None of our channels were showing NY, but the channel featuring the Dallas celebration showed bits and pieces of it. Rob used Jack to count down the minutes when the clock in NYC wasn't on tv. As you can tell by the picture, Jack hated it ;)

One minute before midnight (actually 11pm for us), we handed out cups of sparkling juice to toast in the new year.

Happy New Year!!!