Mine was horrible. Seriously, & I quote: "...the worst ever in the history of my existence."
The Mr. & I always let the girls stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve if they want. I'm pretty sure Zoey has never made it. In fact, there are only a couple times I can remember the Mr. actually staying up until midnight. Usually it's Pazely & I blowing horns & banging pots all by ourselves. That girl is a night owl, just like her mother. And she also knows how to make a properly festive ruckus. Which reminds me: I need new wooden spoons.
This New Year's Eve, for whatever reason, both of the girls AND the Mr. made it all the way to 2013 without wimping out. Earlier in the evening we made snacks & had a happy time in the kitchen. We played games & lounged around in the house all warm & lazy-like. It was actually a lovely, mellow affair.
At first.
And then my 2 girls turned into little crazy people.
Something happened between 9:45 PM & 12 AM, thus ending the celebration. It was an epic fail of bringing in the new year. I'm sure it's all my fault. It could be the fact that little people weren't created to stay up during that many consecutive hours of darkness. I was playing with fire, & I knew it. Or, it could be that I tossed every single bit of junk food on the table & didn't set any boundaries.
Sugar + darkness = evil is coming.
Sugar + darkness = evil is coming.
And it did come.
There were emotions & tempers flying like fireworks. Sweet human children turned into cranky little beasts.
I just wanted the night to end. While we hung out at home, the girls couldn't agree on what movie to watch together, or what toys to play with together, & there was bickering the whole while. So they were sent to their rooms to play alone. How unawesome is that? It was supposed to be a carefree night of fun & breaking innocent rules. It's the only night of the year their mother will ever say, "Yes, you may stay up 3 1/2 hours past your bedtime." Or: "What? You want to eat caramel popcorn, chips, cookies AND soda...all in one sitting? Sure!"
There were tears & more tears. The thing is, as their mother I knew life would be more pleasant for them if they just went to bed. Yet, I did tell them they could stay up. The Mr. & I even tried, earlier in the night, to convince them that we should all pretend that 10:30 was really midnight & we could do all our celebrating early & then go to bed. But they wouldn't have any of that smoke & mirrors.
Life became horrible when I made them brush their teeth— & after they did, they reminded me how I said they could drink that fancy bubbly apple cider drink at midnight to celebrate, in those fancy plastic cups I purchased earlier in the afternoon at the dollar store. And I said, "Well, how about we just drink it tomorrow." You would have thought someone stole all of their toys & ripped apart their American Girl dolls limb from limb the way they howled & moaned. Yikes. So, finally, at midnight {thank you Jesus!}, we drank the fancy bubbly apple cider drink & blew our horns, also purchased at the dollar store earlier in the afternoon. Except my 8 year old's horn didn't work & so her whole world came crumbling down once again & she went to bed in even MORE tears. (Which was weird, because I'm pretty sure she met her tear quota earlier in the night.) And the Mr. had disappeared so he wasn't even a part of the whole "Happy New Year!" hooplah, which wasn't a hooplah anymore anyway, which made me so frustrated & disappointed.
I realize this was just a lesson. The lesson? Never. Again.
A few minutes later, as the girls & I were sadly ascending the stairs to go to bed, we heard a toilet flush & daddy appeared out of the bathroom. I tried to make a joke that, instead of bringing in the new year with us, daddy was pooping in the new year all alone.
Nobody laughed but me.
—•—•—•—
But, alas, I woke up to a new day. Well, actually, it was the same day. Everyone in the fam got to sleep in. Peace was restored to the universe. And we ate breakfast in the shape of happy faces.
♥
There were emotions & tempers flying like fireworks. Sweet human children turned into cranky little beasts.
I just wanted the night to end. While we hung out at home, the girls couldn't agree on what movie to watch together, or what toys to play with together, & there was bickering the whole while. So they were sent to their rooms to play alone. How unawesome is that? It was supposed to be a carefree night of fun & breaking innocent rules. It's the only night of the year their mother will ever say, "Yes, you may stay up 3 1/2 hours past your bedtime." Or: "What? You want to eat caramel popcorn, chips, cookies AND soda...all in one sitting? Sure!"
There were tears & more tears. The thing is, as their mother I knew life would be more pleasant for them if they just went to bed. Yet, I did tell them they could stay up. The Mr. & I even tried, earlier in the night, to convince them that we should all pretend that 10:30 was really midnight & we could do all our celebrating early & then go to bed. But they wouldn't have any of that smoke & mirrors.
Life became horrible when I made them brush their teeth— & after they did, they reminded me how I said they could drink that fancy bubbly apple cider drink at midnight to celebrate, in those fancy plastic cups I purchased earlier in the afternoon at the dollar store. And I said, "Well, how about we just drink it tomorrow." You would have thought someone stole all of their toys & ripped apart their American Girl dolls limb from limb the way they howled & moaned. Yikes. So, finally, at midnight {thank you Jesus!}, we drank the fancy bubbly apple cider drink & blew our horns, also purchased at the dollar store earlier in the afternoon. Except my 8 year old's horn didn't work & so her whole world came crumbling down once again & she went to bed in even MORE tears. (Which was weird, because I'm pretty sure she met her tear quota earlier in the night.) And the Mr. had disappeared so he wasn't even a part of the whole "Happy New Year!" hooplah, which wasn't a hooplah anymore anyway, which made me so frustrated & disappointed.
I realize this was just a lesson. The lesson? Never. Again.
A few minutes later, as the girls & I were sadly ascending the stairs to go to bed, we heard a toilet flush & daddy appeared out of the bathroom. I tried to make a joke that, instead of bringing in the new year with us, daddy was pooping in the new year all alone.
Nobody laughed but me.
—•—•—•—
But, alas, I woke up to a new day. Well, actually, it was the same day. Everyone in the fam got to sleep in. Peace was restored to the universe. And we ate breakfast in the shape of happy faces.
♥
If the name hadn't already been assigned to an ice cream, your heralding in 2013 might be best best described as "Rocky Road"!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Happy New Year! Here's hoping it's sugarless when you need it to be.
P.P.S. Love your pictured breakfast plate!
ReplyDeleteOh dear! Glad everyone was happier after a good night's sleep. If it makes you feel better, my husband, daughter and I got into a fight on Christmas Eve about how late she was staying up - we had to get moving early in the morning on Christmas Day to travel to a relative's house. It was an ugly scene, fueled by exhaustion and Christmas chore overload. Fortunately when we got up on Christmas Day all was well again!
ReplyDeleteOh dear! Glad that all was well after a good night's sleep. If it makes you feel any better, my husband, daughter and I got into a shouting match on Christmas Eve on how late she was staying up - we had to get moving on Christmas Day to go to a relative's house, so the last thing I wanted was her staying up so late that she'd drag her heels getting out of bed in the morning. Our short tempers were due to exhaustion and Christmas chore overload, but on Christmas morning all was well and we ended up having a fine day.
ReplyDeleteThese things will happen!