New Year 2011

Here's another post about our holidays, even though the holiday season is over now. This year, the youth didn't get together for the usual all-night party. Too many people were away, or busy with other things, or even just too tired. So, we enjoyed a quiet night at home. Well, it was quiet inside; the fireworks outside sounded like a war! We made pizzas....




Then we headed outside to do a little bit of early noisemaking ourselves. The story of our fireworks started two years ago. The year before last, Will bought fireworks for the first time in our family. Our girls were pleased with the quiet, pretty, little sparklers and such, but Jaan kept saying that he they weren't "real fireworks." So, last year, Will bought the real thing. However, we were so busy with the youth party and everything else, that he never used them. They sat all year long. Somehow, in that time Will forgot what he had gotten. Around bedtime we went out for our little, early fireworks show, assuring Raia and Asya that it wouldn't be scary... and we ended up terrifying our children! It was a very pretty show, but it was definitely "real fireworks"! Jaan was very pleased, even if he was scared. They all went to bed after that, and somehow they slept through the midnight bombardment.

The next morning, there was a flurry of present opening:

Asya with all her presents at once

They played all day long!

Then, on the evening of January 1st, we invited the youth over for dinner.

The children's room was a busy place.

We really enjoyed having Nikita vist us for the first time.

Raia took this photo.

It was a great way to see in the New Year, even if it was not exactly traditional. I think everyone agreed that it was okay to do without the all-night feast, since we replaced it with dinner, games and fun fellowship the next evening.

Happy New Year!