Happy New Year :)

I worked yesterday morning and then Ady and the kids picked me up. Due to my slackness the night before I hadn’t managed to pack clothes for Scarlett or I yet so we nipped home so I could get changed out of work clothes and collect pjs and a change of clothes for tomorrow each for Tarly and I and then we were off.

We’ve not been out on NYE since 1999 when we had a good night out in a restuarant with my parents (who flew to Australia the following day, on their wedding anniversary 01/01/00) and two sets of friends. I’m fairly sure that was the night that Davies was conceived so all subsequent NYE have been spent at home being parents! 🙂

We spent a fair few with my parents which is sometimes really good and sometimes not so good. Last year it was just the four of us and it was nice and pressure-free although Scarlett didn’t quite make it to midnight.

This year however we were all really excited to be invited to Em’s 30th birthday / NYE party and have been hoping and keeping fingers crossed that none of us were ill and therefore unable to make it.

We had a really straight run and arrived at about 4pm, very closely followed by Mich, Marcus and Chloe. We were properly acquainted with Beryl and Clive (LovelyEm’s lovely parents – I see where she gets it from ;)) who had very kindly opened their lovely house to us all. Wednesday Helen and family were there and The Babs and co, The Fishes (Salmon’s) and eventually The Barts all arrived too :).

The children had an absolute ball playing DSing, running around, dancing and generally being together. We had a very funny (and quite impressive) child pyramid with some of them 🙂

There was an amazing array and delicious selection of food – could have done with more cheese 😉 There was more drink than even I could plough through (infact I remained surprisingly sober for most of the evening due to fear of peaking too early and then going outside for ages and sobering up again :)), there was disco lights and funky music and some of my best friends too :).

The evening seemed to go on forever but at about 11pm when we were all wondering if we’d make it to midnight we remembered the sky lanterns and headed outdoors to get some fresh air, the kids had a run around and we set off the remaining lanterns in a magical display :). I love them sooooo much. Michelle, Em and I were managing to set them off single handed which was a far cry from all three of us struggling to hold them back in September and proved how different conditions should be for setting them off :).

Em, Mich, Kirsty and I sat out awhile longer chatting and observing the picture wall in the kitchen through the window (Mich’s questions about the grey one with lines on will go down forever in my favourite Michelle Moments catalogue 😆 ) before going in to join everyone gathered in the front room for the TV countdown.

I’d told Scarlett about the custom of the first person you kiss at new year being the person you will kiss throughout the year so she was determined to ensure that her and I kissed first – and very comprehensively 😆 Davies was slipping away and far more interested in sitting with mates than coming to kiss his mother (he’s given me plenty of cuddles since to make up for it though ;)). Was lovely to be with loads of other people to kiss and hope to be with plenty more times throughout 2009 too.

I think all the children made it to midnight although Rachael was asleep by about ten past, swiftly followed by The Babs and James, who made a lovely tableau on the sofa together 😆

One by one everyone else headed off to bed with the last few of us left in the kitchen finally heading to bed about 3am. Davies and Scarlett had allegedly gone to bed about 130am in the pool room where we were sleeping, but when Ady and I went in to go to bed we found them still sitting up playing their DSs and chatting with each other :shock:. Consequently they were the last in the house to wake up this morning at about 10am – I think Ady and I were not too far behind everyone else at about 930am. I had been up already to the loo at 730am and heard a few sounds from upstairs and been shocked at the rearrangement of the table in the kitchen while I slept when I thought I’d been the last to go to bed – do you have lovely elves Em?

This morning was really nice – one of my favourite parts of a good party is the morning after when everyone is chilled out and relaxed, the children are slightly less full of energy and there is plenty of tea to drink, food to eat and chatting to be done.

Everyone started to drift off and we were the last to leave (couldn’t have done otherwise really as our car was first in so needed to be last out) at 1pm ish. We had another straight run home and got back at 3pm.

The beauty of travelling light was it took no time at all to unpack – and the sleeping bags and camping mats slid effortlessly into the newly emptied Narnia wardrobes :). Ady chopped firewood (of course ;)), I have mostly sat and done online stuff, the children have continued to DS including having some more games put on for them and a few more duplications so they can do multiplayer stuff. They had a bath to wash 2008 off. We’ve had curry for dinner and a very peaceful afternoon and evening.

Tomorrow the decorations come down, the tree goes out and it’s Operation Table – details of which will follow in due course.