2nd Annual New Year’s Eve With the Slavins

Nothing like New Year’s Eve with your college roommate! Nothing! Luckily us two couples spent quite a few New Year’s Eve’s together before having kids, so spending New Year’s Eve together now with kids isn’t a total downer. In fact, I’ll be the first to admit it: our New Year’s Eves with the Slavins are not a downer at all, actually. Not at all. In fact, I like to think that we rock the New-Year’s-With-Kids, and we quite enjoy it very much, thank you. So, no, we don’t do Times Square (even though it is so close that it seems slightly ridiculous to watch it on t.v.), or the Wonder Bar (of our more wild and crazy New Year’s Eve’s Past), and we don’t even venture out to a family-friendly First Night (although us J-Ms have done that, before we started our tradition with the Slavins, and we loved it). But what we do now is exactly what we want to be doing: we have a good good good time with good good good friends, sipping champagne, having dinner together, laughing at our wacky kids, and helping each other keep our eyes open until that ball drops at midnight. Yes, we spend a good chunk of time reminiscing about the good ‘ole days of the New Year’s Eves of our twenties, when we rocked it out in Boston and threw/attended parties significantly different than the dinner-party-for-two-fams that has become our tradition now. Yes, times have changed. And no, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

New Year’s Eve for the J-M’s started off with a bang when – while at a Panera somewhere between our house in Pennsylvania and the Slavins’ house in Connecticut – Kyle unexpectedly lost his top left tooth while eating lunch! Kyle seems to be developing a knack for losing teeth in remote locations. (He is putting the Tooth Fairy to the test, that’s for sure.)

 

Once at the Slavins it took no time for the kids to get right into their groove. They act more like fun-loving-cousins than friends. And nothing could make me happier than that. This year was extra special because Anthony’s mom was visiting for the holidays from Australia, so she – the truly lovely woman that she is – joined us for all the festivities (we had only met her once before— at Jen and Anthony’s wedding— so it was so nice getting to know her more!).  The fun got seriously underway on the sledding hill.

There was cocoa for the kids, champagne cocktails for the adults, and delicious dinner. In between all that there was lots of “Happy New Year!!”’s and there were lots-o-party-favors and noise-makers and a rockin’ good time.

We have absolutely no desire whatsoever to let the kids stay up until midnight. We have absolutely no problem whatsoever tucking them right in so that we have the rest of the night to ourselves. We have absolutely no hesitation in opening a few bottles of champagne and eating a whole bag of bbq potato chips and an entire pot of fondue. We have absolutely no problem with any of that! The only problem comes with the 7:00am wake-up call from the five who have absolutely no problem with a bright-and-early-New-Year’s Day. They are up-and-at-‘em because they have been waiting for a whole entire year to put on the New Year’s Day Show!!!!!… and finally the day has arrived! After much rehearsing the night before they were ready for their 2nd Annual “SHOW!” With coffee mugs in hand, their parents (and grandmother! what a trooper she is!) were ready too. This year’s “SHOW!” turned out to be a whole solid 45 minutes looooong, and was extravagant. They went way above and beyond last year’s “SHOW!” This year there were tickets, a sign, and a whole series of parts and pieces (including, but not limited to, a “Meet the Cast Intermission,” a break-dancing routine by Kyle, a dance by “the babies,” and a musical duet of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with Imogen on violin and Owen on piano). For the kids, the tradition of the “SHOW!” is what makes New Year’s Eve.

  

 

Jen, being the wise mother-wife-friend-and-roommate that she is, made an executive decision this year to implement a new tradition: The New Year’s Morning Movie. It was Pinocchio. And it was much appreciated by all involved.

Before we knew it we were back on the road to head home. And it was 2011!!!!! This year we’ll celebrate K & O’s 7th birthday, Meera’s 3rd birthday, and the 10th wedding anniversary of Braydon and I! Onward and upward! Happy New Year!