For the first time in a very, very long time, I actually had something planned for New Year’s Eve. Yes, it was still a ‘parent with small kids’ plan, but nevertheless, it was a plan. After an afternoon visit to Mom’s place for a quick dip in the pool in order to cool down a little, it was off to Michelle and Damen’s pad for Jessica, Emily and myself (shame, Chantelle was working a late, so no fun times for her I’m afraid).
Of course, I managed to get lost trying to get there, ending up at completely the wrong complex, though luckily nothing so bad that a quick call to Michelle couldn’t fix!
Ryan joined us after he finished up work, and what followed was a lot of kids’ play time (Jessica and Logan enjoyed the park, even if sharing the ball wasn’t at the top of their list), beer and brandy, and of course Damen and Michelle’s famous home made braai pizzas.
Even the little splash pool came out to play (expertly patched by Damen first though!).
After a lot of play time, eventually we got all the kids into bed, and the adults continued the evening discussing all manner of grown-up topics (like electricity usage and solar geysers), eating ice cream, and of course waiting for the clock to strike twelve, ring in the new year, and unleash the neighbourhood fireworks!
(The fireworks were of course pretty sporadic. They’re expensive plus almost illegal to set off, meaning that I have to assume that one drives to a spot, fires a rocket, and then jumps into the car to hit another spot, before the police can catch on to what you are doing. Sounds like a reasonable theory to me.)
So all in all, a good (and very, very late) night out for me and my girls, even if wifey couldn’t join in the fun. Happy New Year to everyone, may 2015 be a good one! :)
As for some of the pictures I managed to grab on the night:
