The Abraham Family’s Journey to Russia to Bring Home Their Daughter

January 1, 2008

The party's over, it's clean up time

We spent most of today cleaning up our house. There was so much confetti everywhere, it looked like the aftermath of Time Square in New York. And we just had a quiet little New Year's Eve celebration at home.



This was the first year we all actually made it to midnight. Normally, we have to do our celebrating an hour early; i.e. when the ball drops in Time Square we shout Happy New Year and then all go to bed. (New York is EST and we are CST.)

But this year, three of the boys were still going strong at 11:00 so we let them stay up that last hour. Liam was out by 8:00 p.m., but woke up a few minutes before 12:00 a.m. He was awake just long enough to pop a couple of confetti poppers and make a New Year's toast with Sparkling Grape Juice. Then he fell right back asleep when we whisked them all off to bed at 12:01.




The boys LOVE Welch's Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Grape Juice.
The also really enjoy confetti poppers, but aren't too crazy about cleaning up the mess.






Liam thought he could put the confetti back into the popper. Even their Webkinz got into the action!


Kids' say the funniest things: We had breakfast food for our New Year's Eve dinner and Nolan loves toast with strawberry jelly. He probably ate about 4 slices. Later, the boys were begging Martin to open up the Sparkling White Grape Juice, a.k.a. "Champagne". I told them to make sure they saved some for our New Year's toast. Nolan looked up at me with a guilty look and said "Uh, mom, ... I ate all the toast."

Then, this morning as we started cleaning up confetti from the poppers, the boys and I were talking about all the confetti they had in New York for the Times Square celebration we watched on TV and how hard it must be to clean all that up. Preston said there was so much confetti, it was blowing around everywhere and covering up everything. Liam said "Yeah, that's because God dropped all that fetti!"



New Year's Resolutions: We didn't make any resolutions, but we do have a couple of major goals: #1 Complete our adoption and bring our little girl home ASAP. #2 Survive traveling to Russia for 20+ days with four kids and bringing home five kids, one of which only speaks Russian.

Go Cart: Before I forget again, I have had a few people e-mail me for more information about the go-cart the boys got for Christmas. Santa got an unexpected bonus and wanted to get something extra special for the boys. Santa also knows that Mom is totally afraid of 4-wheelers and motorized scooters (practically all the product liability and tort cases in law school involved ATVs), so this go-cart seemed to be a good fit. It is very safe because it is low to the ground, has seat belts and a roll bar, and it comes with a remote control kill-switch that Mom can use to turn the engine off in the event they start driving it too wild.



Needless to say, they LOVE it, but I had no idea they would test out the safety features on the first day. Preston took it for a spin with Garrett as a passenger and he, being my most cautious child, did just fine. So I went back in the house to finish preparing lunch. Then it was Garrett's turn to drive. Right away, he put the pedal to the metal and took a turn a little too sharp. He FLIPPED it. It rolled over with Garrett and Preston three times before stopping upside down. (They were both wearing seat belts. Whew!) Nana, Grandma, and Auntie Bunner were watching from the kitchen window and I heard them all gasp. Martin and Uncle Michael were right there and by the time I got outside, they had them out and righted the go-cart. They were both fine. Garrett had a few scraps on his arm, but he kept saying "That was SWEEEET!" He lost his driving privileges for the rest of the day. He's slowly earning them back by proving to us he is going to be a safe driver from now on.



After lunch, Preston ran into a tree playing ball with his cousin. He came in the house with a humongous goose-egg on his forehead. I immediately thought he had crashed the go-cart and panicked. I was fussing at him for not wearing his helmet and simultaneously telling Martin to send the thing packing to a junk yard, when Preston finally pleaded, "But Mom, I wasn't on the go-cart, I ran into a tree going after a ball!" I thought we were going to have to spend Christmas evening in the emergency room. Thank goodness for doctors in the family. It was an eventful day. Liam had already hurt his toe trying to ride his new tricycle barefoot. What I can't believe is that our Nolan, the most accident prone kid ever, is the only one who didn't get hurt on Christmas.



Here is a video of the boys enjoying the go-cart. I love Liam's giggle as he goes by. Another funny thing they do is that whoever is not riding in the go-cart will run and chase it. They've really been getting a work-out.










CHEERS! Martin and Kim

7 comments:

JennStar said...

hehehe I love how you stressed the "non-alcoholic" part of the sparkling cider title. That was cute.
Our little guys have just discovered Webkins- it's a new fascination around here. So glad that yours enjoyed the festivities, too!! :o)

cdpeck said...

Kim - Have you found anyone to go with ya'll to Russia to help with the kids? B/c if you're brother would agree...maybe I could help out. Also, we're planning on coming up later this month. What's your plans for late January? Unless ya'll are up for a spontaneous mardi gras or disney trip?

Troy and Rachel said...

What fun!!! I can't wait to do all the fun things mentioned one day with our child!! Love the go-cart and boys will be boys. Troy is famous for flipping his 4-wheeler - with me on it! That was exciting. Of course he also broke his ribs on it one time...sigh - I don't know who will bein the ER more - Troy, my child, or me from a heart attack! I enjoyed your kids say the silliest things!

Becky and Keith said...

The joy of confetti! It's so fun when you're throwing it all over the place, but the clean-up... ugh!!! Looks like you had a great New Years and 2008 will be even better!

Dan and Alicia Marlowe said...

Glad you took it easy on the sparkly stuff. Wouldn't want you gettin' a fructose buzz in front of the lil' ones! :) I love that you toasted with them. I want to remember that for next year. I actually kinda hate New Years. It is surrounded by such high expectations and hub bub. So, I always go to bed early on that night. I figure it is better to face a new year reasted. I know. I'm a 30 yr old fuddy duddy.

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Matthew Ruley said...

Happy New year! I just found your blog. We are also adopting, but from Kaz. We also recently changed agencies (from CHI). We have much in common! Congrats on your good attitude about the change, it certainly is not easy to do. Suzanne ruley@tampabay.rr.com