Happy New Year

We celebrated the new year with our normal fondue party at home.  Grandma and Grandpa Wallis were able to stay, and we had Grandma and Grandpa Conrad, Tiffy, Daris, Racheal and Robyn as well as our awesome neighbors - The Terry's.  We didn't take any pictures of the dinner fondue, but the camera came out once we got the chocolate fountain working.  We had a bit of a mishap with some fancy chocolate that I had bought which supposedly worked great in a chocolate fountain without adding any oil.  We got it melted and into the fountain, but it was way too thick!  So we added some thinned out chocolate, and it still wasn't working well.  We finally decided to pour all the chocolate out, clean it up and try again.  After spraying chocolate all over Grandma Conrad, we were able to get the fountain cleaned out and tried again.  Luckily, it worked.  Adam and Xander had been waiting as patiently as can be expected of two 5 year olds. They only asked if it was ready about 10 times!!  They were so excited when we told them that yes, it was ready and they wasted no time trying it out!

 

 Xander didn't move from this chair.  He stood at the fountain dipping and devouring everything he could!

 Jackson wasn't feeling too great, but he did try a banana dipped in chocolate.  He doesn't normally get bananas, so this was an extra special treat.

The fountain was definitely a success!

 We decided to celebrate the New Year on New York time.  Tiffy had bought some poppers and blow horns.  Everyone loved the crowns and silly toys.

Then we made a toast and clinked our plastic glasses and said "Cheers" and "Happy New Year". 

We told the kids we were going to make a toast, which they all seemed pretty excited about. When we were done I heard Xander ask Adam "When are we going to eat the toast?" Pretty funny!!

After a successful celebration, the kids headed for bed!  I wasn't sure if all the adults would make it to midnight, but we decided to pull out Phase 10.  We laughed about the runs, Sparta, brunettes and redheads, skips and lots of other stuff until about 5 minutes to midnight.  We then made some toasts of our own and watched the fireworks that they set off over the space needle and everyone headed to bed. 
As we say goodbye to 2010 and move into 2011, we feel truly blessed as a family!  So grateful for our amazing extended family - thankful that the Wallis Grandparents could come a spend a week with us, thankful for Aunts and Uncles and cousins, and grandparents, thankful for great neighbors and wonderful friends!  We are incredibly blessed and can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for our little family! 

We wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!