Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful New Years at home. We invited friends Alex, Karo, and little Richard (7.5 months) to join us. It was perfect to have another family with a young child staying with us. Both kids would wake around 5 am every morning, both nap around 10 and 2, and in bed around 8. It was nice they could stay for a few nights with us. We had a great time! On the evening of the 31st we did the traditional German thing by preparing Raclette (picture below...cooking machine), watching "Dinner for One" (funny British show) and standing in the street at 12 with a bottle of champagne and fireworks buzzing all around us. However, this year it involved getting both kids in bed around 8 pm, eating, watching the show, getting both kids back to bed around 11:30, and then drinking non alcoholic champagne in the street while all our drunk neighbors came over to say "Frohes Neues Jahr!" Us woman both had our ears to our baby phones trying to figure out how on earth both kids could sleep through what sounded like WWIII outside. Bottle rockets and car bombs going off left and right. Personally I lasted outside long enough to take two sips of champagne before I was scared to death and went in the house. I concluded if someone needed to be driven to the hospital or the kids awoke one of us needed to be alive. The combination of fireworks and alcohol are scary enough however when you add high winds to the picture it gets worse. Ben even admitted that walking across the street to greet the neighbors and coming back made him wish he was wearing a helmut. Personally, I was just proud of myself for staying awake until midnight!