new year's eve 2009

every year we have a new year's eve party for our family and friends and all our kids. throughout the years people drift in and out of attendance - mostly in as more and more of our family members have children. it is always a such a great time and the perfect way to ring in the new year.

this year the boys made the decorations.

my husband and i wanted to do something alittle different this year. so - we decided to host a murder mystery. we made profiles for every guest - exaggerated caricatures really - and man was that fun. i will admit - my husband did most of the writing. i set up the basic outline - pairing the individuals and coming up with motives.....and dh put it all together. while i prepared the food - he would ask for a word or plot twist - and i'd shout back my reply.

i must admit - it was brilliant! we really thought some of the stuff we wrote was oscar worthy! (ok - maybe not - but it was pretty darn funny)

.......thankfully our guests thought so too

here is the murderer. it was our birthday present to her.

b/c on new year's eve she turned 18.

sometimes you can't find an 8 candle - so you have to improvise

.....soon it was time to ring in the new year. the adults found themselves in front of the tv watching dick clark's countdown

while the kids had a very loud parade......

maybe next year i'll pass out the noisemakers seconds before the countdown......not 30 minutes.

you know - regardless of the type of year you had.......i find that making the most out of the last few hours before ringing in the new one - can help you forget most of the bad times you may have had.

at least it does for me.