Ringing in the New Year

This years New Years Day Out-law Bash (as it has been fondly called in the past) began a day or two early. I think we can all agree that it officially started on Sunday, with the Paintball Party for the guys and food preparations for the girls.

 You can read more about the Paintball Party here.

 As you can see, we celebrate New Years with lots of candy and snacks.

The day of New Years Eve, as people arrived, the gifts were sorted out into boxes and laundry baskets, each marked for a specific family.

Hannah helped with getting the thousands of gifts sorted before the meal.

Miss Marie wandered around being her adorable self with Miss Pink.

And Paul was his usual bookworm self until other cousins arrived to play.

After more people arrived, there was a Foosball tournament going on down in the basement, which was super exciting to watch based on how big the audience was.

There was also a Ping-Pong game between Katie and Linden.

I'm not sure if these sports are Sam's cup of tea.

Finally it was noon and time to eat. We had the fun little kid table with Sam, Marie, and Susannah.

Then there was the cool big kid table with Hannah, Paul, and Bobby. (I think Peewee also sat at this table, so she might be part of the "cool big kid" group, too.)

This photo shows that we did have some real food to eat besides candy and snacks.

After the meal, everyone opened gifts. There seemed to be a hat theme this year.
Jason got a hat...

Morgan got a hat...

James got a hat...

Luke got a hat...

Daniel got hat...

And Paul and Bobby each got a hat, too!

They also got matching backpacks to help add to their "cool kid" status.

Grandma didn't get a hat or a backpack, but she got a nice, lavender-scented neck warmer.

 Hannah was found modeling new duck slippers.

After all the gift opening, there was various activities going on.

A cut-throat Monopoly game...

Wagon rides for Rachel and Hannah...

Checking out the quality of horse-meat for Sylvia...

Quality time for Susannah and Hannah...

With the night drawing nigh, some folks were just getting wound up.

Sam got piggy-back rides from Aunt Jul...

 Susannah gathered up some mid-night snacks...

Sylvia was just plain tired, but didn't fall asleep...

However, Luke got caught falling asleep and suffered cold water being poured on his head.

The moral of the story? Don't fall asleep on New Years Eve after you've had a full day of playing, eating, gift-opening, and partying!