New Year at the Nuthouse!

Happy Holidays! I want to wish everyone a belated merry Christmas, and a happy new year! 2009 was just way too fast! Here we are in 2010 already, beginning a new adventure!

And of course, you must know, there's a story from the Nuthouse to start the new year!

Our children, aged 8 and 5 1/2 , haven't made it to midnight yet to celebrate . This year we decided to give them another shot. Daughter (8) was overly thrilled with this opportunity,absolutely positive she'd make it without a hitch. Son, on the other hand, was ready to crash before he even got tired. He moved to the couch , complete with blanket and pillow, just in case.

Husband found a movie , and when that ended we all enjoyed watching the Three Stooges marathon- the kids thought we must have been some really silly kids to have watched those "crazy guys".

We snacked, we giggled, we cuddled, until it was time for the countdown. We watched J-Lo dance around times square, in the rain, in a sparkly nude body suit- Son, of course said he thought she was pretty. The rest of us decided she'd be prettier if she had more clothes on.

As the countdown got closer, Daughter expressed her wishes to go to New York. Knowing Mom was born there somehow makes her think I have a free tele-portation pass .

5...4...3...2...1.... 2010 !! HAPPY NEW YEAR! we watched the celebration in the Square, and the cameras showed the many kissing couples.
One such couple was open -mouth kissing, and Son turned to me ( being the 'expert' on all things NY) and said "Jeez Mom- do they really lick like that there?? That's GROSS!"

let me add that this couple were not using tongues,but, regardless, not having an answer for him, and unable to answer because of the laughter trying to erupt from myself, I hid under the blanket and tried my best not to explode.

I should also admit, the children didn't actually make it to midnight. We live about an hour west of the eastern standard time line. The ball in Times Square dropped at 11:00pm for us. Being that one major city is an hour ahead, and the other an hour behind, our area doesn't have an 'official' celebration.

This actually worked out for the best.

I looked at the children, Son just fascinated numbly with what was happening on the TV (who will clean up all that paper mama ?) and Daughter curled up with big tired rings around her eyes.

Yep. Time for bed kiddos. Anyone awake before 8:30 am better stay quiet!

Son went off with his camping gear, almost happy it was finally time for bed.

Daughter, on the other hand, has the glorious ability to tell time. " but its not midnight, WE didn't have OUR new year yet!"

uh oh. she's onto us. the next ten minutes consisted of me trying to convince her that she wasn't going to miss anything, and her breaking into tears, and becoming very frustrated.

When I finally corralled her into her bed, she was still upset. I explained to her this was nothing to be so upset about, and by this time if she lay here in bed for another 15 minutes, she'd have made it to midnight here. THIS bothered her as well, because she can't see the clock in her room, and brought on a fresh round of hysterics.

At this point, I told her this was nothing to cry about, and because she was sooo tired, she'd cry about anything. look, I bet you cry because I make faces at you- and did indeed give her my silliest of faces.
The child went into hysterical laughter at this. I was relieved at not leaving her to sleep upset.

I went through the goodnight rituals ,gave her a kiss, and said "happy new year baby"

Much to my surprise, this brought the tears back!! "mama you're the first to say it to meee"

No, I wasn't, but I think her exhaustion was grasping at straws now. Now we went through the cry, laugh bit again for another ten minutes. laughing like a loon, then into crying because she couldn't stop laughing.

And I'll be- she did manage to unintentionally do this right though to midnight.

Husband and I retired to our bedroom to send out bulk text messages and answer the mandatory drunken calls from all over the country. To be honest, Husband and I don't generally stay up to celebrate the New Year, it'll be there when we wake up. Its rare that we brave out into the masses to become the sending end of those mandatory drunken calls- especially since the children have entered stage right.

Much to my delight, our resident Nuthouse rooster, this being Son, did not make an appearance until exactly 8:30. I have no idea how he does this without the advantage of telling time, but somehow he does it. Daughter slept an additional 25 minutes.

And so, with this tale from the Nuthouse shared, I wish you all the best for the new year of 2010.

I'm sure we'll be full of more news here as well!