Well, we experienced a New Year's Eve that can only be had in Texas.
We were invited to a party at our friends' house, for fireworks and of course, food. It didn't start until 8:30pm, and by then, Jack, Henry, and Caroline were all asleep. Ryan had plans to talk to friends that night, so he stayed home with the littles, while Rick and I took Kate and Emma with us.
We got there, and the streets were lined with cars. Every driveway up and down the street had a fire going in a portable firepit, with camp chairs all around. Kids filled the streets on bikes and scooters, music was being played out of huge speakers, and it was ALIVE. We joined the party, and soon discovered that this was no ordinary fireworks display.
One of our friends' neighbors buys thousands of dollars of fireworks ever year, and here where we live, there is no ban on any kind of fireworks. They can be as big and crazy as you want them to be, and these people are really taking advantage of that.
Here's a picture of them lined up with the fireworks for the night...
I'm not kidding--it felt like we were at the Stadium of Fire, or any city's fireworks display, except that they were two driveways down, and right above our heads, literally! It was amazing, and crazy, and amazing! Music was blasting, there was an emcee counting down the time to midnight. Up until midnight they would do fireworks every half an hour or so, for about 5 minutes. We spent the evening chatting with friends, and the girls were in heaven, playing with all of the kids that were there too.
But at midnight...
Here's a picture of them lined up with the fireworks for the night...
I'm not kidding--it felt like we were at the Stadium of Fire, or any city's fireworks display, except that they were two driveways down, and right above our heads, literally! It was amazing, and crazy, and amazing! Music was blasting, there was an emcee counting down the time to midnight. Up until midnight they would do fireworks every half an hour or so, for about 5 minutes. We spent the evening chatting with friends, and the girls were in heaven, playing with all of the kids that were there too.
But at midnight...
the fireworks finale began! This video is just a small 15 second snippet of the five full minutes that it went on for, just like this. Incredible. It was a crazy and fun night...and very Texan, to be sure!
New Year's Day was exciting, because Michigan State played in the Rose Bowl! They had an awesome football team this year, and it was thrilling to have them play in such a big game against Stanford. So...of course we had to have a little party. We had tons of yummy food, wore all of our State gear, and cheered our hearts out.
It worked...we won!!! Happy New Year!!!
