Happy New Year 2009

As some of you may know, my family, the Adams side, has our biggest party of the year on New Years' Eve. We have a fabulous dinner with prime rib, crab, shrimp, and appetizers galore. This year was no different. My mom makes up different games each year, and it's always a boys against girls competition. This year we played pass the orange, but with girls against boys, it added a hilarious twist! Here are Jack and Jake getting a little too close for comfort . . .

My dad and Kevin in an awkward hug . . .

And my niece Jessica and I just couldn't get the orange passed! It kept falling down! We lost this game because of it.

We win some and lose some, but every year we lose the "Fear Factor" game. My mom and dad put out paper plates with hard-to-eat foods underneath paper bowls to conceal the food, and we line up and see who can get through their plates the fastest. With bigger mouths and little need for chewing, the brothers-in-law always dominate. In this one, Ashlee is scarfing down pork rinds -- no hands allowed.

THe second to last plate, which was my sister Amy's had Kipper snacks, which are like sardines. Here is a shot of the plate after she jumped back away from it. My sister Alli is in the pink, and Amy is nowhere in sight.Alli came to the rescue though, and tried to scarf down the nasty things, but she ended up gagging and spitting them out. The boys won yet another year. I caught a picture of Amy just as she said, "There is no way I was going to eat that."My brother in law Greg also puts together a slideshow of all the family's pictures of the entire year. Each family submits 75-100 pictures and he puts them all to music. It is such a fun tradition, especially when we don't get to see April, Alli and Angie very often.

Emily and Jessica are so cute with Davis. They spend a lot of time with him when we're together as family. It is so neat that they love him and he loves them so much.

So, that was our party. We had so much fun. The holidays disappeared from us so quickly! I wasn't ready for them to be over! But I guess they will come again, as they always do. We love you, our friends and family!