Couch to 5K Log

Saturday, January 4, 2014

New Year’s Eve 2013

 

IMG_1903

Even though I’m not a particularly crafty person, we decided to attempt another balloon drop this year. It all came together so quickly and beautifully last year – much to my surprise – that I found myself feeling skeptical that it could go as well as it did last year.

IMG_1799

Believe it or not, it all DID go just as well as it did last year … with one small, funny glitch.  While we were shopping for supplies in the party aisles, I spotted a big display of glow sticks. They had the traditional sticks that you could fashion into a necklace, but they also had an assortment of swords, wands and silly glasses. So we grabbed a handful of those, too. To make the Big Moment even more exciting, l wanted to save the glow sticks until just before our balloon drop, so I waited until 5 minutes ‘til to hand them out.

IMG_1965

IMG_1969

IMG_1974

IMG_2022

And clearly, they were a big hit. In fact, they were such a big hit that everyone was so excited and busy assembling them that when I looked over at our computer countdown clock, it was just ticking past 1 to 0!  We missed our “midnight”! (9:00 EST time, 12:00 UTC time).

Everyone was quiet for a couple of seconds.  Then we started talking about when we should drop them instead and decided to go ahead and just do it then, at 12:04, or whatever time it was.

IMG_1990

And we found that a balloon drop is just as exciting and fun at 12:04 as it is at 12:00!  :-) (Mental note: next year get out the glow sticks about half hour before the Big Moment.  :-D)

What else? Oh yes, in honor of the occasion, Courtney counted from 1 to 2,014. By herself. In the piano room.

IMG_1939

and Erica demonstrated her amazing flexibility:

IMG_1928 

We feasted on Mini Burgers (hey, those were good!), Pigs in a Blanket, and French fries (yes, we deep fried them). I made the 1-Pan Fudge Cake again to go with homemade vanilla ice cream and all the toppings.

IMG_1923

And after all that frivolity and celebrating and feasting, we ended the evening by watching the last 3 episodes of … BBC’s Bleak House!  Ha!  And it was bleak and wonderful and had a happy ending!

No comments:

Post a Comment