Happy New Year!

Did you enjoy ringing in the New Year yesterday and today? I know our family did. Yesterday Ryan got an unexpected bonus day off from work (hooray!) so we decided to take Eva to the Sea Life Aquarium in Grapevine. We had been wanting to go for a while but waited until she was big enough to really enjoy it. We were also needing a fun getaway from the house after several days of staying in from the cold. New Christmas toys are awesome, but after a while you just need a break.

The aquarium was actually much nicer than I had expected. It is smaller than the Dallas World Aquarium but the atmosphere is much more peaceful and serene. The whole vibe of the aquarium is like you are walking through a sunken ship, peering at the sea life around you, and they have pretty music playing. The photo on the bottom left square is a family of eels. They were very ugly in person but the photo of them is kinda cool.

For New Year's Eve we flew to NYC to stay at a fancy hotel and watch the ball drop. Ha! JUST KIDDING! We stayed in and invited some friends over for a breakfast for dinner feast. It was a cozy night in and we had our big countdown right around 8PM (think of it as being on the same timeline as fellow partiers in Iceland).  Our friends brought their 4 month old baby and he was so stinkin' cute. When he crashed right after our countdown toast they tucked him into our loveseat for some quite slumber.

 

Look at those two besties! Ryan and his friend Brandon are a bit quirky but always hilarious together. We had a fun time playing games with Brandon and his wife Melissa. I won the game if anybody was wondering :) Around 10PM we knew that our party was getting too out of control so we called it a night. Ryan and I did stay up to watch the ball drop in NYC at 11PM and I think we were asleep within 30 minutes after that. Yep. We didn't even stay up til midnight. We're those people now. I wish I could say that as I watched the coverage of NYE in Big D that I had a longing to be out in the crowds celebrating but I really, really didn't. I was very content to be safe at home, in my pjs, under my warm comforter, about to go to sleep. This is who I am and I accept it.

Of course we had to rest up for our fun day today! We had a late afternoon lunch at my friend Marianne's house and enjoyed more good company, games, and food. 

Eva was in love with Marianne's dogs. Seriously, somebody buy this girl a puppy. No really don't. But maybe one day...

It has been fabulously awesome to have Ryan at home over the past week and enjoy time with so many friends and family. We've worn our pjs often, watched movies, eaten every cookie in the house, played with all our Christmas gifts, and snuggled with our baby. Tomorrow it is back to the real world.