Iowa Visit-Part Deux: New Year's Eve/Day

So upon the arrival of our dear friends, the Rieds, to the Miller Plantation (as we so lovingly call it now), it was catch up time, for adults and kids alike. I remember way back when these gathering consisted of only adults. Then there were a few babies here and there. Now there are as many children as there are adults. Crazy, isn't it? The handsome Miller boys, the beautiful Ried girls and my two played so well together, they made it easy for the adults to do what we do best,... eat, drink and talk!

On New Year's Eve, shortly after Sam threw up a bunch of grapes he had eaten and they all landed on yours truly, we managed to put the kids to bed and get the party started. Our New Year's Eve was definitely a celebration of friends, food, beverages, games, and a whole lot of laughter.

First order of business: the party supplies~hats, tiaras, beads and leis:
No, you do not have to adjust your monitor. Our party supplies do indeed say Happy 2000 on them. So that, my friends, is how we welcomed the new year. So what if our supplies were an entire decade behind, we partied like it was 1999 and we loved every minute of it.
We played the game Battle of the Sexes and laughed so hard, some of us even cried:
But then again, he might have been laughing at this:
When Rachel brought out her 1999 video recorder we laughed until it literally hurt. And I know for a fact that it brought many of us to tears.
One of my favorite moments of the night was when we served the champagne and we all gathered in front of the TV with the anticipation of watching the ball drop in Times Square only to miss when the clock struck midnight because we were entirely too confused on what channel was televising the ball drop. Ladies and gentlemen: the ball is in NYC and had dropped an entire hour earlier when the East Coast's clock struck midnight. Seriously, I'm still laughing at our faces when the realization finally hit. Yeah,... good times!

Anyway, we re-celebrated the arrival of the New Year with the kids on New Year's Day. Out came the 2000 hats and tiaras and confetti poppers. We actually counted down with them and they were thrilled:
Other than that, New Year's Day was exactly as I had envisioned it ~ laid back and relaxing! We spent a lot of time in front of the TV lounging and talking and napping:

I mean seriously, what more can you ask for?

We are so blessed to have these people in our lives. People that I have known since 1995 and have had the honor of celebrating so many of our life changes together. People that I know will be there for us in the next 10, 20, 30 years. I love you guy, and I can't wait until the next time!

Oh and BTW, Rachel has started her own blog about life on the Miller plantation (don't you just love how that sounds?!) to keep their friends and family updated. So stop by sometime to check it out and tell her I say hi. Here's the link: Life on the Miller Plantation.