New Year's Eve

We got to check out one of our Christmas toys today, a bird feeder/camera that took a moment or two to set up, but already we're getting some visits and some fun little pictures of our usual visitors.  Some of these aren't the sort of pictures you'd publish in an ornithology book, but they are still fun nonetheless.  What's interesting is that the camera senses when something interesting is there at the feeder and then records that visit, and then lets you know either as it is happening or perhaps later.  So the app on the phone tells you this or that bird arrived, and in some cases correctly identifies it too.

Pretty fun!  Today was the last day of the year, and we had an unexpected visitor for a good bit - Nate came by to visit, and stayed here for a good bit with Maddie.  They were playing Mario games and Battlefront as well.  

I'm walking down the virtual path and am at another place I remember visiting in reality.  There was a virtual post card for me (above), and some pictures from a temple I remember visiting with Mom and Nana and Ye-Ye back in 2008, just before going forward and into the Forbidden City.  

But ultimately, we all got engaged in a Dominoes countdown!  

We went through twelve rounds of this as the clock counted down to midnight.  We had on the television a couple of live feeds from people down at the Magic Kingdom's New Year's party - they were riding rides, listening to concerts, and of course there was the big fireworks celebration at midnight.

Yes, there was the sparkling apple cider too!  Maddie loves this so much.  We each had a glass, and basically Maddie had the rest of the bottle!  We gave a little toast for the new year before Nate had to get going.

If you're wondering what this is, it's a possum in a glowing sphere.  Each year in Tallapoosa, Georgia, they lower a possum, just like they lower that ball at Times Square in New York City.  And of course there's a big list of other odd things that are lowered from great heights at midnight, like giant fish, a beach ball, a lobster, a giant pickle and more.  But this one is something my sister and her kids had to go and see for themselves:

This was pretty much exactly everything they thought it would be, which wasn't a spectacular event by any means.  In fact, in this case they made it sound like I was glad not to go.  Which is one of those I seem to be okay with - going off to stand around in the freezing cold for hours to watch a ball or any other random object drop doesn't sound like a huge amount of fun, no matter how much loud music is playing!

We were not out and about tonight, but we were together at home to kick off 2026.  It was a nice quiet way to finish a really great year together.  So much happened in 2025, and it's amazing to look back on - this blog helps.  It was a good year, but I hear that 2026 is going to be even better.

Happy New Year!