New Year's Eve/Day

It is already a new year! January seemed to come up too quickly and I find myself excited and anxious to get the year off to a good start. Since we weren't able to have friends over for Christmas Eve, we decided to have a party for New Years. However, Nathan got really sick with strep throat Monday evening, the 29th, and had to spend the next day on call. So, rather than have him come home post-call to a party, we decided to change it to New Years Day. That ended up being a good decision as it allowed Lynette E. to come as well as the Schutts. Nate was able to come home rather early on New Years Eve and seemed to be feeling a ton better. We worked a great deal on getting our home ready for the party, but he had to sleep a lot to really recover. I spent nearly the entire day canning- sealing our wheat into the #10 cans so that I could finally get it out of the kids playroom. It feels really good to have that taken care of and stoerd around the house. I went grocery shopping New Year's Eve to get all the last minute things for our party. Thursday morning I had to teach a piano lesson, after which we spent the entire day preparing for our party. We had the house cleaner than we've ever had it and we made tons of food. I made sweet and sour meatballs, little smokies, chicken wings, a veggie platter, shrimp platter, and put out chips & dip and cheese/crackers/beef stick. Nathan spent a good portion of the morning preparing 4 loaves of sausage bread (again). Our guests arrived around 5 pm and the festivities began. We had the Ercanbracks, Eliesons, and Schutts over (each family with four kids, although the Schutts didn't bring their older 2 boys). So, there was a total of 22 people in our home, mostly young kids running around having a blast. There was a ton of food, as the other families brought treats and Sister Schutt brought like 5 different things. They also supplied the candy for the Gingerbread houses we bought. It was a really fun party and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We ate, played one game (a "cake-walk" with toy prizes for everyone), made gingerbread houses, and then everyone went home. It was a great way to start off the New Year- 2009! The aftermath of the party was something to behold! It was a huge mess, but well worth it. We spent all the next morning cleaning up and getting our home back in order. Thank goodness Nathan was home for it- he is a speedy and efficient cleaner and with his help we finished something that would've taken me a week alone! Now our house looks and feel gorgeous! I love it when it is clean and orderly! I just wish it would stay that way!