New Year's Eve

Did you know that we had a Blue Moon on New Year's Eve? Do you know what a Blue Moon is? It's when there are two full moons in one month - the second one is called a Blue Moon. It's pretty rare, hence the 'once in a blue moon' phrase. Isn't that nice? The moon was so beautiful and big that night.

We spent New Year's Eve over at my parents' house. They were babysitting my nephew, Kai, and we offered to have a nice quiet evening up there, just the five of us.

Well, this is what actually ended up happening:

(Under 30 crowd) (Over 30 crowd)

We ended up sending out some last-minute invites to some friends and had them over! It was a great time! We played some games, had some champagne and hung out with friends. We had about 5 British people over, and they told us about this tradition where the men all go outside right before the count down and the "bring in the New Year" to the women inside. So here are the menfolk waiting around outside:

Isn't that funny? It was okay, but I hope Michael doesn't mind that my first kiss of the New Year wasn't him, it was my parents' friend, David. (Easy there, it was a kiss on the cheek!) Maybe those Brits planned it that way so they could swoop in and steal all the first smooches from us Yanks! The scallywags! (Just kidding, Brits!) (OR AM I?)

We ended the night with some good old-fashioned throwing of cream puffs into each others' mouths from across the kitchen.

In case it's unclear, Michael had just thrown a puff for my mom. Don't you just love everyone's faces? Michael's agony of defeat (Mom missed), Derek's good-natured enjoyment, Dad's disappointment and Mom's uninhibited giggle at the ridiculousness of it all? Ah, bliss.

On a final note, my dad, brother, The Hubs and I went golfing last Wednesday at a course out in Fountain Hills. It was a beautiful course, but check out this sunset we saw from the last hole!