Can't Believe it's 2009

I trust that all of you had a safe and happy New Year. I know we did. We had a "party" over at our friend Karl's house. The reason I say "party" is because there were only 4 of us there. Not including our friend Laura's 7-year-old son who insisted on staying up 'til midnight. I did make some food: spinach dip with pumpernickel bread, shrimp cocktail with homemade cocktail sauce, chips with salsa and cheese, and some taquitos (which didn't end up getting cooked anyway).
We played Trivial Pursuit 80's edition most of the evening because we forgot how long the game takes. As you can see on Karl's face.

After the game was over, we sat around and talked until it was almost time for the ball to drop. This was an interesting experience because Karl does not have TV. We found a live streaming video online of Time's Square and watched the ball drop on the internet. When midnight finally came, we heard some clamor out on the deck. We looked outside to see this banging pots and pans on the deck:

It turned out to be our friend John Bosse who showed up only minutes earlier to surprise us at midnight. We were surprised all right!
After that, we settled in the living room and played this game where the person who is "it" is given a word or phrase to say. That person is then asked questions by the other players and the person can only answer using that word or phrase. The trick is, the person who is it is not allowed to laugh. So, the other players are trying to ask questions to make that player laugh. Whoever makes him/her laugh is then it. For example, Evan was given the word "Touchdown!" and he had to raise his arms like signaling a touchdown. We then had to ask him questions to try and make him laugh.


We called it quits around 2am. All in all, it was a very fun evening. 2008 is gone, 2009 is here. What will 2009 be the year of? We shall wait and see.