New Years Eve 2012

Our 8th Annual New Years Eve party was a blast! It actually started earlier that day :) Jeremy had come up Sunday evening and the Petersen family Monday afternoon, so last minute preparations and cleaning were quickly done. After everyone got to our home, we opened up the food line and after eating dinner Dad gave a little Science experiment and lesson for the little ones.

Soon after that, Dad brought out the Warm-Up Bible Quiz for everyone except the parents. The boys and girls were divided, papers passed out and the race was on! Us girls won, and so we got the Face-Off Bible Quiz first. The next race had begun. It was fast and close. but the boys were victorious! Cheers!
That quiz determines who gets to go through the dessert line first, so the dessert line was opened.

Now we could relax :) (I didn't take any pictures of the last event because it is hard for me to participate and capture it on camera at the same time.....and I seem to always choose participating :))

This is the drink table that was used alot :) Mom had gotten me a milk frother the day before and I was very happy to get the chance to use it so soon by making mochas. I estimated that I had made 15+ that day!

Moving along after dessert, Dad passed out the End-of-the-Year Bible Quiz that was opened up to everybody. This Quiz was 5 pages long and Dad always makes the last page especially hard. Soon there was a line leading up to Dad who was checking answers. Finally everyone was on the last page and it was so frustrating to get up to the front and have Dad give it a glance and say "Wrong!" My team was awesome though :) Finally we heard Dad say, "We have a winner!" It was Macy! Congrats sis :)

Next in line after the End-of-the-Year Bible Quiz was the slideshow. Every year we put together a slideshow of pictures that we collect throughout the year. This year the different categories included; Creation, Animals, Signs, World Records, and Creative Designs. Chase did a great job putting everything together as always. 

After the slideshow, Dad gathered everybody back together and shared some things from the Bible then said a few words about the countdown, party poppers, etc., then handed it over to Mr. Becker who closed in prayer for the new year. Chase led the countdown afterwards. We had passed out party poppers and all joined in counting down from 10 seconds. At "One!" everybody pulled their popper(s) and confetti shot into the air. We cheered and told everyone 'Happy New Year!'. 

Then we sang 'Happy Birthday' to Mr. Becker whose birthday is the 1st. :) 

 I believe this is around 1:30 am. There were still about five families here still :) 

Since Jeremy and the Petersens spent the night (and we stay up pretty late on New Year's Eve anyway) after the last family left around 3:30 am we all played Mennonite Madness until around 4:30 whereupon Macy and I went to bed to get some sleep. The rest of the guys stayed up until 6:30 or 7 am holding a pretty interesting contest in the kitchen I found out later  :)

The next day, the Beyer fam came back over and we did some more Science experiments with them. This one was about air pressure. 

He came out okay :p

Delaney, Elley and Amy also tried it. 

Then we moved outside in the freezing air and walked on eggshells. Literally. 

Chase was the first to go. He had Styrofoam taped to his feet for this next test. 

He made it successfully and a bunch of us tried it with bare feet after him. It was fun :)

Then the Petersens returned from visiting friends when we were in the middle of it and Brad wanted to try it doing a handstand. Dad made him walk across it first then he did a handstand and as you can see had success!

(I love Macy's expression in the second picture ;p)

Delaney also jumped lightly on them and they didn't break. The reason you can do this is because there is a balanced distribution of weight on the eggs. 

The rest of the day was spent playing Volleyball, Rummy, Catch Phrase, Ping-Pong, Knockout, and enjoying our time together. 

The next day we enjoyed our last bit with the Petersens before they left. 

Daniel's cheerful morning face :p

 Abigayle. I think she looked really cute in that hat :)

Us and the Petersens. Thank you Brad for the photo :)

And that concludes New Years Eve and the following days! It was probably one of my favorite New Years :) 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

So, Happy New Year to you! 

Lamentations 3:22-24 says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." I pray that in this coming year, we would see the steadfast love of the Lord in our life and His mercy towards us that is new every morning. Let us with thankful hearts serve the Lord and those that He has placed in our path treating every circumstance as an opportunity to 'let our light so shine before men, that they would see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven.' (Matt. 5:16)