Rockin' in the New Year

So, when you throw together a last-minute New Year's Eve bash with Jeffrey and Karen, you really just don't know what you're in for. Our night included (but was not limited to) the following:

• Jeffrey's amazing and delicious homemade pizza

• Board games (Karen and I won, and then lost)

• 20 pounds of Christmas candy (hey, it's totally justified when it's on sale after Christmas)

• A few neighborhood fireworks

• Jeffrey's midnight run around the block in the nude (oh wait, he opted to keep his clothes on after he felt how chilly it was out there)

• "Eye of the Tiger" (Karen and Jeffrey, then Ellis and Jami)

• "Material Girl" (Ellis and Jeffrey . . .see video below)

• "Tricky" by Run DMC (no one)

• Numberous 80s medleys (all of us)
  

There's a surprisingly long intro to "Eye of the Tiger" when you're playing SingStar 80s. Luckily for all of us, Jeffrey and Karen were prepared with theme-appropriate choreography.





I tried to get Ellis to do some Rocky moves with me during our "Eye of the Tiger" intro. He wasn't nearly as inspired as I was.


And for the grand finale . . . All I can say is, move over, Madonna.

Too late for Christmas stuff?

I'm not sure at what point you're kicked out of the blogging world for neglecting to actually, uh, blog, but you know . . . new year's resolutions, and all that.

So a few weeks ago, the fam made some very tasty gingerbread men (well, okay, mostly women, but that's what you get with our family) and decorated them.

Lucy went with the "more is more" theory on her candy decorations. Of course, by the time I took this picture, she'd already eaten most of them off. You can tell she's still on her sugar-high by the glazed look in her eyes.

Marley spent most of the night painstakingly putting all these tiny candies on her cookie's skirt, and most of us had finished eating our cookies before hers was done. After I took this picture, she spent another hour on her decor.

I think Larrin felt sorry for Ellis's lone gingerbread man and made one herself, although opting to give hers a crew cut. You know, just in case he should ever decide on a career with the military.

Mine is entitled "Self-Portrait" which I think is fairly obvious. The orange corn-rows, multi-colored button-up, and pleated floor-length skirt are dead give-aways.

Ellis's cookie manages to put on a brave face despite a recent traumatic injury. (And personally, I'm rather fond of the Chippendales-esque tie/no shirt combo he chose to go with.)

Princess costume . . . Nevermore!

It's a sad and strange day when your 8-year-old daughter (the same daughter who, in past years, has dressed as an assortment of princesses to rival a Disney store) tells you she wants to be a vampire for Halloween. And we're not talking some sort of cute little Disney-hybrid of a vampire with a sparkly purple dress and flowers on the cape. No, she wants to be scary. Blood, fangs, dark eyes, the works.

Now how did this happen? I mean, the kid dressed up as Tinkerbell last year, and the goal of the event was to look as cute as possible. I didn't really care that she wanted to be a vampire this year, but I was curious about the transformation that causes a girl (a very girly, Hannah Montana sort of girl, mind you) to suddenly want to look like a demon for Halloween. It's just a strange phenomenon to me.

Once we got the make-up and black hairspray on, she was thrilled at how scary she looked. Lucy, however, was not so thrilled. She was terrified of Larrin and ran crying from the room whenever she saw her. I guess we'll get a few more years of "cute" out of her. Not that she had any interest in being a princess. She wanted to be Jessie from Toy Story 2. Only Marley held strong with the princess theme that tends to run rampant in our household.

Lucy, starting to feel she is standing a little too close to Larrin for comfort.

Lucy refuses to be in any more pictures that include Evil Larrin.

Halloween Confessions

So, there comes a point on Halloween when you just have to say to yourself, "Okay, I'll save the rest of the candy for the trick-or-treaters."

"Well, one more is not going to make much difference."

[Fishing through the bowl for another Twix.]

"Kids don't really appreciate chocolate anyway."

"Are you telling me some kid isn't going to have enough candy if I don't have any Twix left in this bowl when he gets here?"

[Rifling through the bowl a few minutes later.]

"Hey, did I see some Peanut M&M's left in there?"

"Well, the candy really goes on sale the day of Halloween, so if I have to go grab a couple more bags from the store, I'm really saving money."

[Surreptitiously stashing some wrappers at the bottom of the garbage can.]

"Weird. I could have sworn there were more Milky Way bars in this bowl. Huh."

[Casually] "Uh, what time do those trick-or-treaters start coming around?"

And finally, the annual promise to self: "Seriously, next year I am NOT opening any bags of candy until right before the trick-or-treating starts! I mean it this time."