Happy New Year, 2013!

I am so glad 2013 is here!  2012 had it's good times and blessings, but it also had some very hard and definitely not fun times for my family, and I am ready to be out with the old, and in with the new.  We are counting our blessings, hoping and praying for good health and peace, and we are thankful for God's mercy and grace.

Last night, we stayed home to celebrate, and just went upstairs to mom's.  Gwen, a good friend, part of the family really, came over, and we had an interesting combination of yummy things to eat.  A mixture of tacos, nachos, fresh guacamole, a selection of meats and cheeses, fresh veggies, crackers, dips, pie and watergate salad!  We all sampled a bit of everything, and the beauty of it all is leftovers!  I will not have to cook at all today!

After eating, we played a rollicking game of "Dumb Ass" (a trivia game).  I know some of you may be wondering why we were playing a game with a name like that; it is an inside family joke, and despite the name, it is a fun game!  The only problem with it is, you can only play it once, because you'll already know all the answers if you play it again, and that would be no fun.  We were able to play several noisy rounds before we ran out of cards (first person to shout out the correct answer wins the card).

Next, we played Monopoly.  We had a few hours to wait for 2013 to arrive, so we got busy making each other go bankrupt.  It was a lot of fun; there were many houses and hotels bought, sold back, bought again, sold back again, lots of properties mortgaged, and wow, the jail was a very busy place!  Actually, when the houses and hotels started showing up around three sides of the board, jail was the safest place to be!  It was a lot of fun, and in the end, Gwen cleaned us all out, owned everything, and the game ended with just a few minutes left of 2012.  Interestingly enough, Megan was the last one to avoid losing it all to Gwen.  That's my baby; Megan, the railroad magnate!

We spent those last minutes cleaning up the game and the kitchen, then as 2013 made its debut, we opened the sparkling grape juice, wished a Happy New Year to all, and ended our little gathering.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year, and may God's blessings be abundant in 2013!