Happy New Year! Our Celebration!

Well, there was absolutely nothing we could do to stop it from happening...2009 has arrived.
It blew in here... to Pennsylvania!
The winds were so high.
All day on New Year's Eve I would look out
the window and see more broken tree branches in the yard.
The wind was extreme.

This made it very tempting
to just stay home in front of the fire...
however...we are glad we didn't do that.
Our progressive dinner was fun!

We began at Jon and Sue's home.




The first course was appetizers and soups.
In our original planning this would have been
two separate stops...however...the
stomach bug bit one of the host families.
Yuck!

This is a very nice picture of Kelly from Cozy Comforts.



We enjoyed our time at this home and then had to say goodbye to run to stop number two. This was my Mom's house. We had some things to gather up from our place and she was riding with us and wanted to get set up before everyone got there...so we said a sad goodbye to Jon...



and hit the road.

When we arrived at Mom's house, Chelsea posed on the front porch.



At this point in our evening we enjoyed our main meal. It was so yummy!
The conversation was great too...at both houses!
It is interesting how the dynamics of conversation and seating arrangements
make for a totally different experience from one home to another.

While we were there and waiting for the rest of the group to get there I went around taking pictures of Mom's beautiful decorations. I am so glad they were still up. It occured to me at some point on Christmas Day that I was missing the opportunity to get some gorgeous photos. Mom decorates so nicely.


















One person had to leave and not everyone was available for this group photo...but this is our exit photo from Mom's house...


Then it was time to head out to Georgia's house for the dessert.



This was birthday cake and ice cream...for Georgia.
Chelsea and I made the cake.

A group photo before heading downstairs to watch the ball drop...


We ended up watching some "Mikey type" do a dirt bike jump in Las Vegas. He jumped ten stories onto the top of a building and then had to jump back down. This was of interest to our group because of our own resident dare devil. The one who is giving me many, many gray hairs. I am telling you that it has to be the grace of God that is keeping this kid alive at this point. I surely pray daily that that grace continues until Mikey's brain is totally developed and he no longer attempts to hurt himself daily with these daring acts of silliness on his bike.

Then...soon after the ball had dropped and this idiot guy had successfully made this jump, further cementing Mikey's denial that anything could happen to him, we headed home and straight to bed. So...snoozing away by 1:30 am on January 1, 2009 was not a bad way to start a New Year.

I look forward to seeing your photos and hearing about your New Year's Eve.

Today we will do next to nothing...eat pork and sour kraut...watch parades...hope, hope, hope that Penn State will beat USC. I think I will be watching that through fingers over my eyes. It could go either way....sigh....and then my college football is over for the season. Always sad for me...I am not a big fan of basketball so that leaves me with gymnastics...and ice skating...well, there are some NFL games of interest still to come!

Happy New Year!

Becky K.