Welcome 2014!

          New Year's Eve was a blast. We have spent the last few years having a party at my sister Allison's house. She makes it so much fun. She even set up a photo booth with props and took everyone's picture. We had delicious appetizers and then garbage bags full of balloons with prizes and fortunes inside them. While Ellie enjoyed the meatballs, she couldn't have cared less about the balloons. In a year or two I think that will change! After balloons the kids shot off confetti guns and these HUGE confetti cannons. They were super loud and shot confetti everywhere. Ellie jumped at each one that went off, but surprisingly didn't cry. This all happened around 6:00 p.m. By 8:00 we were back at home and Ellie and I were in bed. We both woke up at midnight when our neighbors started a firework fest, but both Ellie and I were back asleep in no time.

           As I reflect on the year 2013, I am nearly overwhelmed with all the changes that it brought. The biggest change was of course the birth of our beautiful Eleanor Joyce. How she has enriched and brightened our lives. We also bought our first house, I retired from teaching (for now), and Brian jumped into two different law jobs. What a wonderful year we've had. Two poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson always come to mind as one year rolls on to the next--"Death of the Old Year" and "Ring Out Wild Bells". On the one hand, 2013 has been so good to us I echo the following sentiments from his poem "Death of the Old Year":

Old year you must not go; 
So long you have been with us,
Such joy as you have seen with us,
Old year, you shall not go. . .

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,    The flying cloud, the frosty light:    The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16131#sthash.Omw3hu2N.dpuf

But then I am also so eager to see what 2014 will bring that I feel like exclaiming:

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true. . .


        

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,    The flying cloud, the frosty light:    The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16131#sthash.Omw3hu2N.dpuf