New Year's Fun

There was a time in which Jeff and I had an annual New Year's Eve party. It was a crazy, joyful occasion with lots of alcohol and little sleep. After the evening's festivities, everyone passed out at our house. On New Year's Day we would cook a big breakfast and following the clean up from the debauchery, we looked forward to a day of football watching.

New Year's with three kids under three is not quite the same.

We did go shopping to prepare for the big event. Jeff checked the pantry to make sure we had Skyline chili in order to make dip. During a regular weekly shopping he and R picked up the remaining ingredients for dip. They also bought a bottle of champagne and a bottle of sparkling raspberry/apple juice. At the last minute we discovered we didn't have a bag of chips with which to consume our dip, so an emergency trip was made to purchase those.

We did work around the house in order to get ready for the big night. Instead of cleaning and decorating, Jeff did laundry all day on New Year's Eve. Lots of laundry. About five loads, or a 2-3 day supply. Then we placed all that laundry on our love seat in the living room where it sat filling it from one side to the other and from the cushion up to the top of the back of the seat. It was as impressive display created by around 14 pounds of baby.

Naps were taken before the big night. We weren't resting in an effort to stay up, we were more passing out from having only slept 2.5 hours on Monday night and 4 hours on Tuesday night. While I slept on the bed with M and Jeff slept on the couch with L, R held down the fort choosing to skip her nap. Thankfully she did a great job of entertaining herself and so far has always been on her best behavior when she "gets" to skip her nap, which is increasingly more common. (As a result of not napping, she's been sleeping until 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning, and that is okay with us, too!)

Rather than having a big smorgasborg of snack late in the evening, Skyline dip, our one "snack" was prepared and served with dinner so that R could enjoy it with us. Adding to her belief that holidays are about food, she delighted in knowing that on New Year's Eve you get to eat chips with dinner. She thought that was fantastic.

We somehow managed to get the boys to bed at 8:30, and R, Jeff, and I rang in the new year with our sparkling raspberry toast at 8:45 p.m. (We were celebrating the new year somewhere in the Caribbean.) We don't know if R liked the juice, the act of toasting, or the time alone with us best, but she did clearly enjoy this.

I was exhausted and cranky and had planned to sleep until 11:45, but that didn't quite happen. I can't even remember what we did over the next few hours although I know I showered, we fed the boys again, and I pumped milk. A little after 11:00, we discovered that PBS was playing one of the Eric Clapton Crossroads concerts, and what was a girl to do but stay up and watch? While watching it, Jeff broke out the bottle of grown up champagne, and he and I actually enjoyed some time alone together. We had more champagne and toasted at midnight before heading off to bed. It was lovely.

New Year's Day we woke up groggy and slightly hungover (at least I was - champagne after nearly a year of not drinking is rough) - just like the old times! And we served breakfast to a crowd, although more creatures had Iams or breast milk than bacon and eggs. But the best part were the first words out of R's mouth that morning. "Good morning, Mommy. Happy new year!" How could I ever trade that for one of our old parties?"