2011 New Years Celebration

It's a Tradition.  Yep, that's right we have a lot of them.  And the last one for the year is always New Years Eve at our house.  My family comes over for an evening of games, food, movies and chatting (something we are all very, very good at).  So, here are some of the pics from New Years Eve.

Patti, Angela, my mom, Alice, Allie and my dad all had a fun
evening playing Mexican Train.

Sam was constantly on the prowl for any food bits.  This year we
had a turkey and wild rice dish, hot dogs in barbecue sauce and
a multi bean dish.  They were all so yummy.  Not to mention all
the chips, dips, chocolates, fudge, cookies and so much more.

The younger crowd playing games.

At midnight we went outside to ring in the new year.  Since
fireworks were just recently made legal, we had a few
fireworks as well.

I don't remember what these are called, but they spun around and
spat out sparks.  Pretty fun to watch.  Ryan had a great time
lighting them.  I even got in on the fun and lit a couple.

Ryan and a sparkler on New Years Eve

It's Been Awhile

Oh man! Is there anyone still out there. I would be surprised and wouldn't blame anyone for not checking this out here. It has definitely been WAY too long since I have posted. It's not for lack of things to put here, we have definitely been as busy as usual and I, of course, have taken WAY to many pictures so that's not the problem. So, here it is...

I'm not one to make excuses because, well, that's just what they are, excuses. When really the plain simple fact of the matter is, I just haven't been here to post things. I could tell you all about this and all about that, but what it all really boils down to is there have been no postings for quite some time.

Since, I don't have the pictures from all of our March activities ready to go yet, I am going to post something a little different until I can get them ready. See, that's the real problem - a photographer posting pictures on a family site. I can't seem to bring myself to put pics on until I have them truly ready to be presented to the world. So, please bear with me. And in the meantime, I hope you will enjoy this posting.

Every year I create a family calendar. It hit me some years ago . . . being a photographer (which quite honestly I had a hard time admitting I was one of those for many many years - and yes I do know that I have issues) I realized one day, why am I paying for art in my house when I should be displaying my own work. Kind of a duh! moment really. So, I started blowing up my own work and using it in my house. Well, again, I had another duh! moment and realized why am I paying for a calendar when I can make my own and have what I really would like to look at throughout the year on it. Ever since, I have created family calendars. I use the pictures from the year before and highlight different activities. I have a great time creating them and think that we really enjoy them throughout the year. This past year I had four printed - one for the kitchen, one for Ryan's room, one for Doug to take to work and one for my parents. I decided to share the pics with you. I will start with January.

2007

2008

2009

2010

New Years Day - Avatar

Ever since seeing the trailer for Avatar, we have been counting down until it hit theaters. I decided that New Years Day would be the perfect time to organize a viewing for family. I invited my family to join us to see it in 3D on New Years Day. It ended up being me, Doug, Ryan two of my brothers, a cousin and a neice. We loved it! What a great movie! Now we are counting down the days until it comes out on DVD!!!

I didn't take many pictures, just this one - how unlike me I know. In my defense I'm not sure I was fully awake and was too excited for the movie to start!

New Years Eve 2010

We had our traditional New Year's Eve at our house this year. My family came over for movies, games, food and chatting. I think everyone had a good time. We had plenty of activities going on this year including Guitar Hero or Rock Band or some such music video game, tons and tons of food and yummy treats, we watched the movie Up, a dice game was played and Christmas puzzles were worked on.

Sam loves when my family comes over - there is always lots of food to drool over:

Here are pics of some of the games that were played:

My dad looking through the photo book I had made for Christmas:

Ryan actually fell asleep around 11:30 - that was a first. He did get up to make some noise at midnight and then went right back to sleep.

Making lots of noise at midnight. This year, for the first time in like 13 years, we weren't the only ones out making noise in our neighborhood. There were also some fireworks being shot in the park behind our house.

Happy New Year 2009

My family has a lot of traditions from Halloween through New Years. Every year on New Years Eve, my family gathers at my house to celebrate. Everyone brings favorite foods to snack on during the evening, favorite games to play and stories to share. We always have a great time. We leave the evening pretty open and just let everyone do what they would like.
As usual, there was plenty of food. We had sushi, chili cheese sandwiches, chips with salsa or queso dip, chocolate candies, cookies and much more. My kitchen was pretty full with all the yummy foods.
We also have plenty of activities. There is always something to do in our house. We had Rock Band going on in the front room, Mexican Train Dominos at the kitchen table, and Apples to Apples in the Family Room. In addition, we had some impromptu activities break out including a pillow fight, dart tag and Nintendo Ds. Something for everyone. And if you didn't feel like playing something, there is always plenty of visiting and chatting whenever my family gets together.

Ryan and Annie playing Nintendo Ds together. I'm not sure what game is going on right now, but they had a lot of fun playing together:

Ben, Ryan & Baylee broke out in a mini pillow fight for a while:
Doug, Scott and Ryan started a game of dart tag:
Scott was having a hard time finding some of the darts he kept getting hit with:

Ben couldn't resist the fun & joined in:

"Rockstars" Doug, Ben & Scott:

Angela concentrating on Mexican Train Dominos:
Finally it was almost midnight. We went outside for the countdown. Scott is looking a little cold waiting for midnight:
Every year we are the only ones making noise in my neighborhood. Go Scott Go!
Ryan ringing in the new year:
Ben & Baylee making some noise:
Doug & Ryan:
Finally a happy new year to all from Ryan & I: