Our New Year began with a BANG!

And the clock struck twelve...

Happy New Year!

As the hope of a new year approached, we set out with the idea of dinner out with the children, Chinese food to be exact, and the usual food fare for our family this night. Beforehand we took the children to view the movie “Alvin and the Chipmunks” at the local theater. As David Seville, the main character in the film yelled out to Simon, Theodore, and Alvin, I was filled with warm memories of my grandfather who used to love these little critters and enjoyed listening to his record albums of their musical style. Talk about another musical genre, this trio became famous in the early fifties, and album after record album, their music still attracts quite an audience.

I remember slouching over the counter top bar area in our wee kitchen when I was a young girl and my grandfather was there for a visit. He came with gifts bringing a record (you know those vinyl music circular things of the past?), of the chipmunks over to our home as a gift which we had for many years, in fact, I had it with my own family here. He told us stories of real chipmunks for he had built a cage years before, and his own four boys had chipmunks for pets, just like we have hamsters today, with a wheel to exercise on during the night or day. I smiled when these furry fellows became a movie, and laughed heartily during many parts of the silly thing. However, the warmth of a memory from the past filled my heart with joy, even if only for the evening.

Earlier in the day, we had purchased two boxes of fireworks, a first time purchase for us, and instead of a few noisy and bothersome firecrackers or a few sparklers for a thrill to light up in celebration of the new year welcome, we were going to be lighting up the skies this night with roman candles, and all sorts of colorful goodies this night.

Fireworks for the midnight hour.

My husband gathered his booty, sorted and organized it all on the kitchen counter, and took all outdoors to set up for later on.

Once we arrived home after our excursion as a family for fun and adventure together in a very relaxed mode, the younger children headed off to bed, while our oldest son welcomed several other young friends into our home for a few hours. Together this time at hand became an exciting and wonderful time, periodically my husband and daughter and I roamed down to get involved, so tempting to play too. With a tabletop hockey game set up on a tabletop, the fuse ball game on one side of the room, several television sets with either playstation or Nintendo games in progress, it was a teen’s paradise, or maybe a husband’s too, if only for a moment. Grin

Guess who this is?

As the announcement was made to come and fetch themselves a midnight snack in the kitchen, and the clock was about to strike the midnight hour, all grabbed a bite to eat and ventured outdoors where my hubby was all prepared with fireworks to light up the skies.

The guys were ready, note the clock behind them.

The fireworks weren’t the spectacular type you would see in some serious competition, and as the wind picked up, lighting them became a tedious and bothersome problem with the flame dying off periodically. In frustration, my hubby continued and pressed on, though there were a few issues with the cold and wind creeping in as time progressed.

Overall, it was fun, festive, and lively, and imagine our surprise when we saw a few other fireworks shooting upward into the night sky. No noisy hooting and hollering, it was all from us this night in the country, where we live, in the east.

All of the boys assembled their knapsacks close to the doorway, and as they awaited their rides home, several hockey sticks in the garage were a tempting thought, and off to the sports court they all went, somewhere in the dead of the night. Though they all dispersed soon after the fireworks, each of them were encouraged by the fun this night and requested more gatherings such as this one together, where friendships have been forming since the hockey league on Friday nights began this past fall in our yard.

What a nice evening it was, and the younger children were woken up to take part in the festivities around midnight with us. How fun!

The following day we woke up when the alarm clock sounded it was time to arise and prepare to get to church. As my husband peered out from between the shades on the window, he snickered and went back to bed. We weren’t going anywhere this day, not with the foot or so of snow which had blanketed the ground during our slumber.

The snow fell, all night long

What a beautiful gift, the beautiful sight outdoors this day, a brand new day in a brand new year. We are so thankful for a small thing such as this, the beauty before us with freshly fallen snow, white and crisp to glance outdoors at, and although we knew we would be heading out to shovel that beautiful stuff sooner than later, we still continued to admire such a lovely landscape out of all our windows. Beautiful!

In addition, the snow descending from the skies over the following days, large billowy and delicate fluffy flakes kept on falling from the skies.

Around the neighborhood

For the novelty of it all...

You all know what I think by now….bring it on! I just love the winter here, especially when the sun explodes in the sky and the reflection against the snow on the ground makes us feel so cheery and happy.

Our Winter Wonderland,

truly a feast for the eyes!