the little party that kept on going..and growing!

i am in the classrooms today so i must be briefer than a stripper's knickers with this post.

but i wanted to tell you about New Years Eve.

I mentioned earlier how the kids were giving us grief about having a social life. So Charles and I decided that we would spend New Years with our family and actually celebrate it with them. As we learned at Christmas...they're old enough.

We decided it would be movies and wii at chez Caldwell.

It sounded divine.

Then I said to Charles, "I wonder if we should invite another family" and he said that sounded like a good idea. I contacted Weng Simon and her family, and she texted me back " Gr8! Simon Family will be there!".

I was on a roll. I knew that Tara had plans but I invited her anyway. I invited Susan and her family, but she reckoned that they had plans.

So it looked like it might be small. Two families. Fine and fair enough.

Except then I was talking with Charles about a family we really like and he suggested I invite them. So I did.

And I don't quite remember what happened after that (kind of like when you go on a wild shopping spree??) but I DO remember that I was talking to people and the topic of New Year came up AS IT DOES and if they weren't doing anything it just seemed RUDE not to invite them to our place. How can you not invite friends? Especially ones that for the most part, we have all known for over five years?

So on 31 December, 14 kids and 12 adults gathered in our flat. We had wii on and an LCD projector playing in the boys room.

WIthin minutes, the girls' carpet was covered with their princess dress collection and the girl visitors were climbing up and down their bunkbed ladders.

I had ordered pizza, "made" sausages, a macaroni cheese, had thousands of bags of chippies and juice at the ready, so we were set. For adults there was champagne, wine, and at 10 am I had filled the slow cooker full of chili ingredients and pressed start. It was smelling fine. Everyone brought something - spring rolls, dumplings, chicken wings, pate, cheese ball & crackers, adult home baked pizza, and lots of wine. 

We presented Weng with her birthday cake and all the kids got cupcakes. The party had started.

Now all we needed was stamina!

At 8.55pm we gathered the kids around the television and turned on Australia TV to watch the Sydney fireworks. Charles had printed out copies of Auld Lang Syne and we passed around versions to everyone and sang, and wished our Kiwi and Aussie neighbours a happy new year.

We took polaroid pictures of all the families.

After the first new year, our numbers began dropping off....fair enough. Our invite had read...

At the beginning of the milennium, none of us had children. Let's celebrate the start of a new decade with them.

That's what this party was all about. Being with our family at the start of the new year.

By 11.30 we were a sorry crew. One adult was asleep on the sofa. The rest of us wanted to be. Sela was asleep on our bed. The rest of the kids were watching ET.

At 11.55 we pulled everyone in to the front room, woke up sleeping beauty, and welcomed TwentyTen with sparkling water. We had already consumed three bottles of Pol Roger, so we didn't feel too hard done by!

And by 12.30 our last guest had left.

I think this is what our New Years are going to be like for the next few years. Until our kids get their own invitations. We owe it to them to make it good and fun, not only so they have good family memories, but so they have alternatives if the going out option isn't the most appealing one to them.

I think this is what our New Years are going to be like for the next few years.

Or at least, I hope so.

Tomorrow...i tell about what happened after the neighbours left!!!

Comments

[Mo aka Maureen aka Grandmother aka Mum]

Gorgeous story, Tess. The kids will cherish their spending New Year's arrival with you both. A wonderful 2010 to Team Caldwell!

Love, Mo xox

[Patron]

That was a long post, you tease, where do I slip the twenty bucks?

[Tara]

Maybe 2011 will be at the Terlich's!!! Andrew can dance up a storm at ours and not the HKCC. As you know we would have loved to stay but i loved popping in, would like to hear what happened....................xox ps. Can you tell Charles that i would love to see the photo of Andrew and i dressed ready for the Ball as it is the only photo we have.

[joeinvegas]

That does sound like fun - we were asleep by 10