Our New Year's Eve

We rang in the New Year with our friends and neighbors, Tim and Erin, and their great kids. Our children love their children, which is always a big help for the grownups. We were all dragging a little, but we did make it to midnight with the help of peach cosmos, Guesstures and some really good food. Erin brought a baked goat cheese-artichoke dip that we couldn't stop eating (I need that recipe), Jerod made potato-leek soup, and we had Erin's chocolate lava cakes (warm, buttery goodness fresh from the oven) with Haagen-Dazs for dessert. The kids all stayed up until midnight (except Sawyer, who played with Amanda until 8:30), and they even played a round of Guesstures with us before we watched the ball drop. We toasted the new year with champagne - and sparkling grape juice for the little guys. It was the first time we've had the kids with us at midnight, and there was something really nice about that.

Here are a few photos. ....

Amanda and Sawyer...

Me, Erin, Tim and Amanda

Me and Jerod...
Midnight toast (grape juice for the kids)
Ethan and Parker...

Mmmm.. chocolate lava cakes...

And so we said goodbye to 2009. For 2010? We'll see. Many changes are on the horizon, and we'll try to take them in stride.

If you have lots of time on your hands and want to check out the highlights of our year, check out our 2009 photo book here.

Happy New Year!