Good-bye 2012, Hello 2013

After a long time off of work, school and routine, today is our first day back at the grind. And while I have enjoyed these days of family, friends, food and no schedule, I am ready to get back to a normal routine. But before I dive into 2013, I need to wrap-up 2012 here on the ol’ blog. So here we go.

Pictures from our Christmas celebration with my bro and sis (+families).

Zooey was a big hit with all her cousins. Being the baby of the family means lots of attention. It’s hard work to be so cute and loved.

My nephew was making funny faces. He has to learn if he does that he will be blogged.

My boys were excited that they got to open one more present.

And after presents we all hung out together. It’s not very often that all the cousins are together.

My brother giving my SIL a knee squeeze

My nephew with a giant box of chocolate

Just hanging out.

We rang in the new year with a party at our house. We decorated the house.

And I made a little photo wall.

And we wore silly hats.

And we did a 9 pm count down for the kids because we didn’t know if we would make it to midnight. (But it turns out that we did make it). At our 9 pm countdown we gave all the kids a very loud horn to blow. It was crazy loud.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures – but Lisa did, so I borrowed from her to share with you. But first from my cameras.

From my phone:

Us at midnight.

We played this very funny card game…which is like Apples to Apples, but an adult version called Cards Against Humanity. Of course we had to wait until the kiddos were all downstairs playing before we could dive into the game. It was very funny.

And here is all the little boys at midnight curled up in Ethan’s bed

And the few I took with my big camera:

And a few of the photo wall ones.. we didn’t end up getting everyone’s picture at the wall as planned, oh well.

Zooey was not cooperating when we tried to do one of the 5 of us.

So we did one alone.

And Zooey with her friends.

And me with my friend

Lisa was much better at taking pictures that night. I just wasn’t in the picture-taking mood. Here are some from her camera:

A closer look at the photo wall in the basement.

 

The kid’s trashed the basement.  But that is OK – they had a lot of fun.

We laughed a lot.

I am not sure the total number of kids at the house that night… I think 11 at one point. From 8 year-olds to babies. It was crazy.

Did you watch the video above?? Wow, those horns were super loud!

And that was our New Year’s Eve.

And now it is 2013! Can you believe it?

It was a great time…the entire Holiday season! Yesterday I spent the day cleaning up from the party and putting away all the Christmas decorations. While I love the Holiday season, it feels good to get everything cleaned up and put away. A fresh year ahead. Tomorrow I am going to share some of my goals for 2013…but right now, I got to get kids up and get ready to head back to reality.

Hello 2013.

Happy Wednesday!