Christmas this year was very different from our traditions and 'norm', and so was New Years. Kaylee invited two friends over to spend the night with her, and go to our city's downtown festivities with her. One of the friends decided not to come, which I think worked out just fine. First I took Kaylee over to the local Super 8 Motel, where her one friend's family had rented a couple of rooms so the kids could go swimming. So Kaylee went swimming with her friend for a good two hours or better, on a nice indoor heated pool, which you don't often get to do in December. The mom dropped the two girls off at our house, and we had some hot pizza waiting for them, and then they played on the Xbox for a couple of hours. Then we bundled everybody up and headed out to downtown Kokomo. Now, when we arrived, it was kind of quiet, and we were wondering if we'd made a mistake. There was supposed to be food and drinks and stuff to do, and it was quiet, with just a DJ playing and not that many people. But I wanted the girls to have fun with it anyway, and they did get into the spirit of it. Pretty soon there was a ton of people there, which isn't better, for the record. ;) The girls watched a donut eating contest, which Kaylee wanted to enter until she found out there were 24 donuts in front of people that they had to eat. They danced a little to the music, and they did have a good time. :) When the time came, the pink ball didn't drop. We thought this was kind of funny until I found out that it was a local kid school robotics group that had spent a good portion of the year designing the ball, setting up the timer, etc., and that at its big moment, it failed. That's not so funny. I feel bad for the kids. It was a beautiful ball, hot pink with the little triangles on it changing colors. After the ball...tried to drop...they had a bunch of fireworks, and those were great. They did a nice job on the fireworks! I had just gotten done telling Kaylee earlier that day that it's pretty normal for things to not go perfectly, that something goes wrong a lot with plans, but that you adapt and roll with it and choose to enjoy yourself anyway. They did, they had fun, and that makes it fun for me.
We came home after the fireworks were done, I made the girls some hot chocolate to warm them back up, and they played dance games on the Xbox for almost two more hours before putting on a movie and lying down out on the pulled-out futon in the front living room, which is where they are as I write this at 2 a.m. Steve's in bed, and I'm just staying up and making sure everything's okay up there for now. I'm not sure if I'll outlast them or not. I could, but not sure I need to. ;)
We thought about going out and doing something with other adults, we thought about staying home and inviting other adults over, we thought about staying home and doing nothing but watching Dick Clark's special on TV, and then we decided for the first time to let Kaylee do something. That ended up being slightly stressful for awhile, but once we got rolling, it was fun. Earlier I listened to them laughing while they played. Right now I'm listening to them laughing at the movie they are watching. In the morning (or more likely, around noon), we will make pancakes and have donuts and enjoy the first day of the new year. This is good.
I was thinking about what I hoped for in 2014. Considering how the last year or two went on some things, I decided that for 2014 I'd better just aim for staying healthy and out of trouble, and anything that got accomplished above and beyond that would just be a bonus. ;) I have some things I want to do before it's too late, and I hear clocks ticking in my head for some of it, not just on NY Eve, but for awhile now. I'm restless--nothing bugs me in life more than missed chances--not even bad drivers. ;) I'm not sure some of it's even doable, so for now I'll just go with healthy and keeping out of trouble!
So anyway, welcome to 2014. And off we go.
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