The Archipelago of Last Years

Tonight we had the last taco we'll have for the rest of the year.  Or that's at least what Madison said.  This was at the start of our evening, a nice quiet evening at the house.  We were ready for our private party tonight at the house - no extensive trips anywhere this year.  Still, we invited Nana and Ba-Ba to the house via Skype.  Wishing them a happy New Year, we talked for a bit, taking the cameras around to show each other all the Christmas decorations hanging up in our houses.

Afterwards, it was time to visit the Archipelago of Last Years, or at least see it on television:  together we watched "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" once again.  Once again Aeon the Terrible was terrorizing the Archipelago, the Sands of Time and Father Time's castle.  Fortunately, with a little faith and a tub of popcorn, the new year was saved again.

Earlier in the day, we were starting the DeSantafication Process, although in a very limited way.  Madison did quite a bit of piano practice today along with some reading, both part of her continued homework over the Christmas break.  As a reward for her hard work, she got another Monster High doll - Cleo De Nile.  This is one of eight donated by her cousin Hannah just prior to Christmas.  Rather than give these to Madison at Christmas, when they would be lost amongst the other toys, we decided to give these out just about weekly for doing things like reading assignments and the piano practices she has to do.  She was pretty excited about Cleo - Madison has been playing with her dolls beneath the tree, all inside the mansion that Ye-Ye constructed for them.

Daddy did go into work today for a bit, printing out some papercraft for the weekend.  You'll be seeing that soon, some items for the display case at KidPak.  We were looking for something related to Vikings, and this morning we found some items online that could work out.  We'll see how they turn out, but it seems as if the next few days we'll be putting some stuff together, including a copy of the Stave Church in Norway.

Tonight was a struggle to make it to midnight - but the three of us did!  We popped in a few movies, like the "Claymation Christmas" special, and we also watched "Annie" from a few years ago.  Madison liked that one, taking note of the songs we borrowed for our production at the church, "Holly."  And so it came to pass that we arrived at around 11:30 pm, with just a half-hour left to go in the year.  We made our way upstairs to the antenna television, and watched the chaos and noise of Times Square on our television sets.  There was an advertisement for "Cinderella," conveniently close to midnight - and then there it was:  the timer counting down less than a minute.  It came as a surprise, but then that's the way the year has gone by.  We're surprised 2014 is gone - it went by so fast!  If we didn't have this daily blog entry, we might not know what we did each day!

Mommy and Daddy kissed at midnight - and we kissed Madison too.  This year will be Mommy and Daddy's fifteenth anniversary.  And it will hold many other joyous surprises too, hopefully for you as well.  Happy New Year!