New Year's Eve

All day long I kept hearing Dennis tell me "we are having a New Year's party at the lake house!". He was correct. We were indeed planning a small party and he knew he'd get to see Chloe. He didn't want to nap, didn't want to go to Wal-Mart, didn't want to do ANYTHING except go to the lake house and go to the party. He had a great time playing with Chloe, jumping on the bed, chasing her around with his camera while trying to snap her picture (and I do mean literally chasing her... I mean he was RUNNING). They wrestled and played and chased and sang songs while rocking together in the rocking chair which was so unbelievably cute that I might have thrown up from the sweetness of it if it wasn't two children that I love. They 'counted down' to New Year's (at 9 pm--it was New Year's somewhere over the Atlantic) and yelled and screamed "Happy New Year!" and blew their paper horns. Yes, I got this on video. It is priceless. Their sugar highs carried them until about 11 pm, when they both crashed. Chloe was at the lake, David had taken Dennis on home (poor David has to work tomorrow very early). I stayed and played games with Dave and Ellen until late and when I got home, I came in and found David asleep on his side of the bed and Dennis snuggled in beside him in the middle. I woke David up (not meaning to) and asked him if Dennis had a nightmare or was scared awake by loud fireworks (living in the redneck neighborhood we live in, we hear fireworks for at least a week surrounding any holiday plus engines revving and rifle shots at various other times of year). Funny thing is, David did not know Dennis had gotten up and climbed into our bed! Dennis seemed nervous that we would make him leave, but we didn't. When I was getting ready for bed, he padded into the bathroom dragging his Froggy and hugged me and whispered "there are no monsters in Mommy and Daddy's room". I assured him there were no monsters in his own room and that he'd have to be in there tomorrow night. I don't know where all this fear has come from, and I don't know what to do, but we are going to get through it in our own respective beds!

None of our friends made resolutions for the new year, so we made a bunch of them up (Mom and I) and I put them in a big bowl and let people draw a resolution at the party. This was a huge success and very funny and I imagine we have started a new tradition. Dennis drew two for himself, the first that he would fart more quietly in 2010, the second that he would learn a new sport. Chloe drew that she would climb a tree and that she would go on a cruise. We talked about what was good about 2009 and about how excited we are about 2010. Bring it on!