New Years Eve Celebration

In a season of changing traditions, we held New Years at Jon and Beth's this year. It was a lot of fun, with the typical "each person brings a drink to pass" deal. Dan had a second failure with his grasshopper martinis. They were the color of used engine oil and tasted only slightly better.

New additions this year included Stulie (Stu and Julie, Kevin's sister) and their 12 kids. You can see how much they both love Jon, as Julie is telling him he's number 1 in this picture.

As always, our musical talents reigned. We had Guitar Hero world tour for the Wii, where Jon is pretty sure he sounded even better after a few drinky-poos. Dan sounded much better on the drums once we took the sticks away.



I love this picture of the four original Kurt kids (not including the interlopers, as my Mom would call our spouses). Jon has made great strides, and they became even greater after a few drinks, to bring Kevin into the fold.

One of the highlights was the "Dog's Pile on the Uncle Jon" game that I initiated. He had no chance with 15 kids piling on.

"Crazy Cat Lady" Anne Veltema (who the Cat Lady character from the Simpsons is based on) was there as well. We made her sit with all three dogs on her lap to see if we could convert her from her cat like ways. (She owns 12 cats).

We headed to bed around 1:30. The kids faded sooner, actually asking to go to bed throughout the night.

At some point, my Dad decided that it would be a good idea to show up at 7:45am on New Years Day. I'm not sure what made him think this was a good idea, but he was pretty confident that it was the way to go. I suggested that we setup an 800 number for future situations where he comes up with ideas like this and needs some quick feedback. He quickly informed me that he'd been told by multiple family members that it was a bad idea, yet he showed up at 7:45am. I love my Dad, but I'm pretty sure this is either a sign of senility or being cantankerous. Maybe both. I love my Dad, but question his common sense at times.

Originally, I was not going to post any pictures until Sarah Labella started using Picasa to share pictures from the event. I am posting, but just not making any reference to Sarah in my post. For the record, Mike Koch was there and as always, I was touched by him.

You can see the rest of the pictures here.