Happy New Year 2010

A few days before New Year's Eve my sister calls and asks what our plans were..."bed by about 8:30" was my answer which she found unacceptable. She talked me into making her a foundue-Ben agreed to push back bedtime to 9:30 when he found out what she wanted. So we had a quiet fondue with Auntie Lauren and the Favorite Uncle Jon. I'm glad she talked me into it. It was the best fondue by far I've made. The cheese was absolutely sublime-pears, apples in addtion to the bread made for nice twist. I also did a beef fondue but instead of frying the beef in oil which is the standard I made up a beef broth and we cooked the meat in that. It made such a taste difference and lightened up the entire meal considerably. I didn't feel like I added 10 lbs from that one dinner alone and the taste improvement was suprising. I could go on about how good the meal was but I'll stop so I don't sound too nerdy. Ben's only complaint was I didnt' make enough cheese...I thought a pound of cheese for 4 adults would be plenty. Guess not. Let me just say, New Years dinner turned out to be heavenly. (ok, part of that may have been feeding the kids early and sending them upstairs to watch a movie while we ate but still, Winston was on my lap most of the time and I was still in food euphoria.)

After dinner we let off a few fireworks. I didn't spend much but it was fun. Before dinner, I let the boys do some poppers. But while I was buying the fireworks the lady told me they had new and improved poppers-so I got some. Yikes, they meant new and improved. They sounded like firecrackers everytime they it the ground. Wintson was terrified and I had to take him inside. Owen wasn't thrilled and mostly watched from the window and Ben and Noah threw the 4 boxes worth. The only way Noah survived was his use of protective ear gear. See pictures. But the 3 foot sparklers and the fountains were a hit. Even Winston wanted to hold a sparkler by himself.

While I didn't last until mid-night, we did play Trivial Pursuit and Phase 10, which I won. A nice way to ring in the new decade. Jon won Trivial Pursuit-really the only contest was between Ben and Jon. But Ben got the most ridiculous questions, so it really wasn't fair. Lauren, well let's just say that it was not her intellectually shining moment. We'll have to play again so she can redeem herself from the questions she missed. Too much good food on the brain.