New Year's Eve

Personally I don't really get all the hoopla about New Year's Eve.  It's just a number.  But Brodie always gets the day off and the kids don't have school so I figure that's reason enough to celebrate.  Each year we make a huge, yummy meal and buy the noisemakers and hats and indoor confetti popping fireworks.  I know this year they were allowing real fireworks and aerials and stuff but it's winter and I really don't feel like spending a buttload of money on fireworks to then sit outside in the cold to watch them.  So we stuck with our regular routine.

This year we decided to make lobster rolls.  We bought a couple lobster tails from Costco and some sweet French rolls from the store.  Brodie steamed the tails and made a light mayonaise/butter/salt/pepper/green onion dressing for them.  I cooked up some tri-color cheese-stuffed tortellini then deep fried them and rolled them in cinnamon sugar (an idea I got from Our Best Bites that has become one of our favorite treats), steamed some broccoli, roasted some baby red potatoes with garlic/olive oil/salt/pepper/rosemary, and made some Jell-O with fresh blackberries.

After dinner I made some popcorn and we watched The Smurfs that we rented from Redbox.  The kids lined up their foam couches turned beds to watch while Brodie and I sat back on the couch.  Clara ocasionally watched the television but spent most of her time searching for more M&Ms to eat, spilling her popcorn, giving everybody their water cups, running in circles with a big grin on her face, and following Pace around.  Tessa was interested for the first half and then spent the second half climbing all over Brodie and I.  Spencer really enjoyed the movie.  I didn't think it was worth a full-length movie.

Then we broke out the noisy blowers and all the confetti popping fireworks.  After we let off all the fireworks the kids ran around grabbing handfuls of confetti and throwing them up in the air making their own fireworks while they blew their noisemakers.  Clara couldn't blow hard enough for the noisemaker to make its own noise so she ran around with it in her mouth while she imitated the noise.

And so ends 2011.  On to another fun year!