Happy New Year!

Warning! Lots of pictures in this post! I wanted to add a few more, but I selected these since they tell a story.

This first one is of Eric with his three new trains--Patchwork Hiro, Old Slow Coach, and Neville. He has so many trains, but he really does love each one. I was discussing with my mom about how Anthony used to love trains and Alex used to love cars. Eric loves them both.

The kids got their Christmas presents from Lolo and Lola on Thursday, and Aunt Melissa yesterday. I was organized this year and brought along thank-you notes for them to fill out. We were able to give out the thank-you notes within an hour of receiving the gifts. Yay me!

One of the reasons why we went to Houston for the New Year is that setting off fireworks isn't illegal where my sister lives, whereas it is where we live. This is one of the first fireworks we set off. It was loud and very cool. It was only 7:30pm, but unfortunately, the loud sounds sent a very tired Eric back inside the house. That's from a boy who usually loves loud noises. He did come back outside for a little bit and watched some of the other fireworks go off, but then he was back in side with Lola.

It was dark and very hard to get good pictures. I'm determined to master this before the next New Year's celebration. Everyone gathered in the street, at first. My brother-in-law lit all of the fireworks so there wasn't much participation, mostly just watching.

The boys stayed in the street for almost the whole time. Patrick bought a dozen of these "tanks" that were supposed to be propelled forward when they were lit. They ended up being mostly noise and smoke. Nick and Alex are holding some of the few sparklers that we had bought.

Anthony and Nick decided to fall down in the street as if the fireworks exploding had shot them. If I had some chalk, I would have tried to draw around them. I'm sure they would have loved that. There were some other fireworks that we didn't end up lighting because the wind had picked up and it wouldn't have been safe for the surrounding houses.

The girls mostly sat on the sidewalk in the chairs that were set up. It was interesting to see the division by sexes.This is where Eric was sitting for a short while. Aunt Melissa loves to cuddle with Eric and she was more than willing to have him on her lap. Mom was outside for even less than Eric. Dad stayed indoors.


Later, after the girls and Eric had their baths, the girls gave us a little concert of Christmas songs. They started upstairs, but that was too hard to photograph, so they moved downstairs in front of the fireplace. We were hoping that Eric would sing too, but that was asking too much from that tired boy. He did seem to enjoy the concert.

He looks pretty relaxed, doesn't he? This is Eric watching the girls sing. He is wearing one of his many new Thomas clothes. He went to bed shortly after the "concert". Mom and Dad went to bed early too. The rest of us stayed up to watch "Despicable Me" and then some of us played Apples to Apples. It was nice to spend a relaxing evening with family.

Today, John took Aly and Natalie to Home Depot to build battery organizers. They have this activity on the first Saturday of each month and Aly is obsessed with this activity and the ones that are at Lowe's every other week. The rest of us just hung out at the house until it was time to go home. As soon as we got home, Alex wanted to go meet his friends at the local ice skating rink. The timing was a little inconvenient, but we're glad that he can be social in person instead of just texting (and playing video games at home). Hopefully tomorrow will be another relaxing day before all of us resume our normal hectic routine of school and work and other activities on Monday.

Happy New Year!