Ringing In 2016

New Year's Eve has long been one of my favorite days of the year.  It's always filled with so much fun and so much promise.  Since Jason and I have been married, we've tried each year to celebrate in some way big or small.  Whether it be a board game marathon with just our kiddos or a night hanging out with friends, we've always had fun kicking off the count down to the new year.  We celebrated the start of 2016 by having family over for a night of Chinese food and games.  We also had a cousins-a-plenty sleep over.  Many years ago, when my dad was in the USAF, my parents, along with my big brother and sister, were stationed over seas.  During that time, my mom learned how to make lumpia.  They are a very delicious and slightly addictive Filipino style egg roll.  Mom cooked up over 63 last night (correction, Nana made well over 100!!!), along with crab wontons.  Natalie made her delicious fried rice.  Aunt Jenn and I picked up some sweet and sour chicken.  Aunt Kary brought enough fortune cookies for everyone.   It all added up to one fantastic feast....unless your name is Grandpa James.  Word is, he wasn't too crazy about the food. ha ha ha!  All of the cousins present, sure seemed to enjoy chow time. (Side note - Nat couldn't smile, because she had her wisdom teeth removed this week.)

Here's our crazy guys. 

There were a couple of very festive kiddos.  Karsyn was one of them.

As was Mr. Stephen.

After we ate, we played games.  There was a friendly game of cousin poker.

During a game of dominoes, we all discovered that Uncle Billy and Uncle Terry have the same laugh.

After we did a little clean up, everyone save for a couple of video game playing boys and Grandpa James, who had went home, played Encore.  It's a game where you divided up into two teams to see which team can recall the most songs with given words.  It was fun to see everyone get so involved with the game and belting out song lyrics.  From Papa Gene to Payton, we all were all singing loud and proud.  The girls totally won too. =)  After the game, it was rapidly approaching 11 o'clock.  Addi and Karsyn lost the battle to keep their heavy eye lids open and were snoozing away.  Nana, Papa, Aunt Jenn, Uncle Terry, and Silas all headed home.  The remaining crew played a game of Scattergories.  Jason was getting quite sleepy and headed to bed.  If he didn't have to head to work the next morning, he would have stayed up with the rest of us.  We played another round of Scattergories and then it was time to bring on the sparkly grape juice.

When midnight struck, we had a mini dance party in the living room.  Uncle Billy, Aunt Kary, and Nat called it a night.  Sam, Sarah, Stephen, and Emily all slept over.  They, along with Evan and Payton, were up until the wee hours of the morning playing board and video games.  Addi decided to give all of the kiddos a wake up call when she woke up by singing the chorus to "Wildest Dream" by Taylor Swift over and over and OVER again. ha ha!  The kiddos ate donuts and played Apples to Apples before Aunt Kary and Uncle Terry arrived to take them home.  I think everyone had a blast.  I know that I sure did!  I think this may be the start to a new tradition. I hope that you all had a great start to your 2016 too!!!