A New year cometh
Happy New Year's Day. It's amazing how fast this year has passed. So many events. I wonder what this new year will bring? How did we spend the new year? Well, quite nicely.
Last night we took the children to celebrate the new year in historic town nearby for their First Night event. Our goal was to do something fun for the children rather than the 'ol stay at home order a pizza and watch a movie thing. That's fun and sure it's cheap too, but yawn, boring, we want something different. The girls are getting older and more tolerant of our adventurous ways. With the mild temperatures it was the perfect night to be out having fun. We expected to be home by 10pm.
The whole of the historic downtown district was blocked off for the event, it was a pedestrian's dream. It was free family event lots of fun activities. Nearly everything was free, some of the food was not. These were the free activities to do: ice-skating, old-fashioned carriage rides, music, dancing, theater and storytelling, puppets, balloon animals, caricature artists, face-painting. I heard that the DC Comedy Club some local high school students were staging a TheatreSports Challenge, a version of Who's line is it anyway. There were many bands and a karaoke stage. We started off with ice skating Both girls were so excited to do this little did they realize how difficult ice skating can be. After a moment of understanding the basics of balance they were off to a good start. Olivia preferred to "Do it alone" and Leah preferred to hold a hand. Maybe lessons in are in their futures. I was impressed with them. I was not pleased with the rowdy little boys on the ice. These little troublemakers were running and sliding baseball style into everyone. I felt bad for the volunteer responsible for keeping the attraction in order. She spent countless hours chasing after those dopes. And of course parents of these charming pranksters were MIA, most likely hitting the bars. The main attraction for us was the "magic playground" an area dedicated to the blown up playthings. There was a fairy-tale castle and a caterpillar to jump and play on, which was the girls' favorites. The line for the carriage rides was long. It was an hour wait. As one of us stood in line the other would take the girls to do stuff. It worked out nicely since just about when we were getting into the last half hour of the wait we jumped in front. The show wagon was not preferred by those people in front of us, and the driver would not go with only 5 people. When they offered the ride to any who wanted to go we took the opportunity. It was just as fun, sure it was like a hayride, still I liked it and we didn't have to stand in that long line any more. After the wagon ride we were let off next to the flower garden. We sipped some hot cider, well at least mom and dad liked the cider, the girls were disgusted by the thought of drinking hot apple juice. They did like to warm up by the bonfire and toast marshmallows. The local Boy Scouts were there helping with this, it was a very popular location. By this time it was 10:30pm, and tons of people were trying to squeeze in to toast marshmallows. The fires were super hot, almost too hot to get near. I let mine catch on fire and self roast. My face could take only so much heat. Leah preferred to eat hers un-toasted. An hour later the girls were too tired, dragging tired, to go on. By 11:30pm we were unable to wait to ring in the New Year marveling over the fireworks display. We decided to head home and have them in bed before the ball dropped, just in time for mom and dad to enjoy it and a bottle of champagne together. Actually we each drank 1 bottle. Two bottles of champagne and two people are never a good idea. I think we were having a little bit of a happy hangover Sunday in church. Ugh. Mental note do not go to bed drunk and then go to church the next morning. It is never a good idea. By noon we were mostly recovered. Our friends were coming over for lunch, the girls told everyone in church about our company. They love them. When the doorbell rang it was madness, girls running and yelling with sheer excitement. It was like we had rock stars on the doorstep. Judith made a fantastic lunch, the best stuffed peppers ever, and muffins my girls will eat. I really enjoyed the time together. And thanks goes to Eric for figuring out how to get the camera to work. He saved us from insanity. Gosh they're the best. What a great way to start the year.
The whole of the historic downtown district was blocked off for the event, it was a pedestrian's dream. It was free family event lots of fun activities. Nearly everything was free, some of the food was not. These were the free activities to do: ice-skating, old-fashioned carriage rides, music, dancing, theater and storytelling, puppets, balloon animals, caricature artists, face-painting. I heard that the DC Comedy Club some local high school students were staging a TheatreSports Challenge, a version of Who's line is it anyway. There were many bands and a karaoke stage. We started off with ice skating Both girls were so excited to do this little did they realize how difficult ice skating can be. After a moment of understanding the basics of balance they were off to a good start. Olivia preferred to "Do it alone" and Leah preferred to hold a hand. Maybe lessons in are in their futures. I was impressed with them. I was not pleased with the rowdy little boys on the ice. These little troublemakers were running and sliding baseball style into everyone. I felt bad for the volunteer responsible for keeping the attraction in order. She spent countless hours chasing after those dopes. And of course parents of these charming pranksters were MIA, most likely hitting the bars. The main attraction for us was the "magic playground" an area dedicated to the blown up playthings. There was a fairy-tale castle and a caterpillar to jump and play on, which was the girls' favorites. The line for the carriage rides was long. It was an hour wait. As one of us stood in line the other would take the girls to do stuff. It worked out nicely since just about when we were getting into the last half hour of the wait we jumped in front. The show wagon was not preferred by those people in front of us, and the driver would not go with only 5 people. When they offered the ride to any who wanted to go we took the opportunity. It was just as fun, sure it was like a hayride, still I liked it and we didn't have to stand in that long line any more. After the wagon ride we were let off next to the flower garden. We sipped some hot cider, well at least mom and dad liked the cider, the girls were disgusted by the thought of drinking hot apple juice. They did like to warm up by the bonfire and toast marshmallows. The local Boy Scouts were there helping with this, it was a very popular location. By this time it was 10:30pm, and tons of people were trying to squeeze in to toast marshmallows. The fires were super hot, almost too hot to get near. I let mine catch on fire and self roast. My face could take only so much heat. Leah preferred to eat hers un-toasted. An hour later the girls were too tired, dragging tired, to go on. By 11:30pm we were unable to wait to ring in the New Year marveling over the fireworks display. We decided to head home and have them in bed before the ball dropped, just in time for mom and dad to enjoy it and a bottle of champagne together. Actually we each drank 1 bottle. Two bottles of champagne and two people are never a good idea. I think we were having a little bit of a happy hangover Sunday in church. Ugh. Mental note do not go to bed drunk and then go to church the next morning. It is never a good idea. By noon we were mostly recovered. Our friends were coming over for lunch, the girls told everyone in church about our company. They love them. When the doorbell rang it was madness, girls running and yelling with sheer excitement. It was like we had rock stars on the doorstep. Judith made a fantastic lunch, the best stuffed peppers ever, and muffins my girls will eat. I really enjoyed the time together. And thanks goes to Eric for figuring out how to get the camera to work. He saved us from insanity. Gosh they're the best. What a great way to start the year.
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