New Years

In light of our new location, and exciting new life (read with a bit of sarcasm) Richard and I decided to break our tradition of sleeping through new year's eve. Instead, we took some new friends up on their invitation to join them and others at their house for dinner and drinks. Luckily, all of the couples have kids, all of whom our kids know from school. Alex, who has proclaimed her love and devotion for Ethan, decided at 4 they should be married. She described in detail the wedding, which included Izzy as the "girl with rose petals". Jonah, an almost 3 year old younger brother not attending school quite yet, followed Ethan around all night, learning new tricks of being a boy to annoy mom (sorry Cory!).

After running around the house screaming, finding the bucket of balls that had been hidden, riding the contraband tricycle around the crowded apartment, the 10 kids (all under 6) sat down for chicken nuggets, carrots and popcorn for a new years eve dinner:) And how many parents does it take to feed these kids? Oh...all ten! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera for this circus, but needless to say, it was a miracle that any kid ate anything....After the dust had settled and the kids were again "playing" in the other room, adults ate a scrumptious meal of pasta....Richard did not take part in the "Eric's love sauce", a spicy meat/cream sauce that our host had made. All of the events should be put into the context of there being at least 7-8 bottles of wine and/or prosecco being opened and drained at any given moment until the lemoncello and grappa entered. As I wanted to be a good guest, I had been partaking in the wine before dinner and lemoncello after dinner....which led to my public moment of "weak parenting". All moms had set limits with their kids throughout the night....Izzy's being "one cookie only". After shot number two of lemoncello, Izzy asked for another cookie. Looking at her, and looking at the plate, I decided another shot of chocolate wouldn't change the spastic, over-tired (it was 2 hours past bedtime), horrible behavior, so said "which one?". At that moment, I realized, all of the moms and dads were listening and laughing! I heard both "way to stay strong Sarah" as I saw Izzy take the chocolate cookie with a huge grin on her face:)

Shortly after, we decided the evening should be finished at our house instead of having full breakdowns at a new friends. With much reluctance, we said goodbye, wished everyone a happy new year and went out into the world of Rome's NYE. The sound of fireworks was overwhelming....I should have known when the number of places one could purchase fireworks was more than places to purchase Ben10 and Hello Kitty toys that Romans love their fireworks. As we entered the car, Ethan declared "I am not tired", and promptly joined his sister fast asleep, while Richard and I marveled over the sounds (and lack of the firework glow in the sky!). We got home with an hour to spare before midnight, put the kids to bed (Ethan declaring he still wasn't tired), and watched one of our pathetic, yet entertaining, tv shows. The sounds of firecrackers got louder and louder, to the point where we had to turn the tv up! At the height, we could finally see fireworks surrounding our house in the skyline (not from one show, but many private ones in gardens, alleys and piazzas), with kids screaming and laughing in the cacophony of noise! Midnight was upon us, and we hadn't fallen asleep!

To a happy, healthy and peaceful 2011!