Sunday, January 4, 2009

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is the most anti-climactic holiday of the year. It seems that no matter how hard you plan, things never quite go the way that you want them to, so why bother? I mean, who really wants to start the year off on a downer?

That's why 16 years ago, our good friends the Warrens started the annual ball drop. It started with a disco ball being dangled from speaker wire off of a local parking structure at midnight to a crowd of about 15 friends and stragglers. Over the past 16 years, the tree at the base of the parking structure has grown so that the ball is only visible for a few seconds before it is completely obscured by the tree. The ball has become more elaborate (a hoppity-hop covered in tin foil and Christmas lights) and the crowd has grown- mostly because our families are getting larger.

We all show up about 20 minutes before midnight, watch the ball drop, take pictures, drink sparkling apple cider, and go home. We're usually back home by 12:30... Totally anti-climactic, but a perfect way to start the New Year. We love seeing everyone, we love the fact that there is really no planning involved (on our part) and that we can race out of the house at 11:45 and still make it downtown by 11:50 so that we don't miss anything.

We have added to the tradition by having the chocolate fountain after New-Year's dinner...messy, but delicious!

Enjoy the slideshow via Animoto (if you haven't checked it out yet, it is awesome!
What are your New-Year's traditions?

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