Welcome to the New Year

We traveled this New Year's, a bit on a whim. Since I was 34 weeks pregnant, a road trip seemed questionable. We had discussed the possibility with our Minnesota friends, whom we have not infrequently visited for their annual New Year's Eve game party. Being a household of 10 on their own, they quite graciously said, "Come if you can; we don't need advance warning."

So, it was Tuesday night, 9 PM. We had just finished cleaning up from Day 2 of family Christmas parties (14 people here on Monday; 23 on Tuesday). We had the kids tucked in bed and asleep. I was exhausted. Jeremy checked the weather. "Tomorrow looks clear for our entire route but freezing rain might start by late tomorrow night." Guess that means leave tomorrow, bright and early, if we are going. So, we started packing. We called and left a message for our friends that we intended to leave when we woke up unless they called us back to renege on the offer. It wasn't our usual early departure that we prefer for the long drive, but we were on the road at 9 AM.

It was a pretty nice drive. The kids did great in the car. They chose to all sit together in the back row, where they were quite cute (from a mom's perspective) and they actually didn't even fight very much. Just as I thought John wouldn't make it, he fell asleep for a long nap and the big kids read to themselves peacefully. We allowed 5 stops, but we didn't dawdle for any of them! We didn't run into any precipitation until the last hour or so, when it was just starting to mist/rain a bit. I got a bit tense since the temperature was hovering at 32 degrees, but the roads stayed clear and dry enough for a safe arrival, with just 10 hours elapsed travel time.

The kids love our visits to these friends. With 8 other kids and all new toys it is like a big free-range funhouse for kids. Maggie played pretty constantly with the girl who is one year older. The other girl is 2 years younger than she is and tagged along much of the time. John also tagged along some, though he preferred the boy 2 years his senior, who was equally interested in sword fighting and superheroes. Thankfully this boy, being the youngest in a household of kids, knows how to duck and so is not easily intimidated by John. John also fell in love with the 15 year old boy, who is apparently something like the Pied Piper. His mother says young children, including his own 2 youngest siblings, always fight to be next to him. He carried John around, read books to him, and just generally inspired hero worship.

James likes having a ready supply of partners for playing board games, and could often be found with the boys his age (1 year younger, 1 and 2 years older) but he also really enjoys talking with the 15-year-old boy, who is quite good-natured about it and willing to chat about Civilizations 3 (James's favorite "new" old computer game) or anything else on James's mind. All three of the kids enjoyed the chance to play on a Wii, and some new movies to watch, a later bedtime, and having much less supervision than usual while parents were busy visiting themselves.

The New Year's Eve party was great fun, though a serious undertaking for game-lovers only. Our friends carefully plan the entire evening (guest list, timing of events, etc.) around a successful game night. This is a treat for us, since we rarely have enough company and time to play games. This year, the kids rotated through movies and Wii while the dozen or so adults enjoyed good group games: Four on a Couch, Catchphrase, Guesstures, and Say When.

John at midnight, going strong and enjoying a toast with Mom.

James, Me, Margaret are towards the back in the middle of this photo. John is reading (?) on the couch to our right.

Since I was thoroughly in vacation mode, I napped long and hard every afternoon, which meant even I could stay awake to enjoy ringing in the New Year with old friends and new (though actually, none were completely new, since we have visited these friends enough times at New Year's now to have met all of their other guests for this year). We had a quiet, slow recovery day on January 1, enjoying some games for smaller groups (Settlers of Catan, Wooly Bully, Agricola, plus learned some new ones like Transamerica and Dominion).

We had a longer than planned drive home, adding 2 or 3 hours to the trip to detour in Wisconsin and briefly visit some childhood friends of Jeremy's who had suiffered a death in the family. It was good that we could be in the right place at the right time to make that feasible. The kids were more tired and crabby than on the drive out, but still did remarkably well. Jeremy and I had time to talk and rest, as well.

We arrived home late and tired, but just as we approached home, the Krispy Kreme "free donuts" sign flashed its last hurrah for the evening. Jeremy stopped and got everyone a free sugar ring as a dinner substitute (though we did still encourage the kids to eat some eggs and toast before bed, as well). It was about 10 PM by the time we got everyone tucked in bed for school the next morning, but it was a good kind of tired. (Hopefully I will still feel that way later this week as the fatigue continues and becomes the grumpies.)

So, a crazy, whirlwind trip. But kind of a fun last fling, too, as we look ahead to a new pace of life dominated again by a newborn. Jeremy reflected on how it was nice to open and close our holiday/vacation time with visits with really great, lifelong friends from far away. (We had been able to see our other "kindred spirits" friends, from far in the opposite direction, briefly just before Christmas.) It was good to be with friends - the kind that we can pick up with where we left off, whether it has been a few weeks or more than a year. That is a treasure enough to fill any year, new or old.