Sunday, December 30, 2007

New Year Fun

New Year's Eve when I was either five or six years of age I remember playing and dancing around with my cousins (my dad's sister's kids). I don't recall who was watching us, but my parents were at a New Year's Eve Dance. The next morning I remember playing with my cousins "keep the balloon in the air" with a pink, dusty, sad-looking, not-fully-inflated-anymore balloon. After fighting over the balloon, Mom and Dad told us they had a surprise waiting in the van for us. We ran out to find a van stuffed full of white balloons! What a thrill for us all!

October 1996, when my sister Leslie's wedding reception was over and we were cleaning up we gave all the balloons (which were also white) to a family with young children. They were so thrilled as we stuffed their van full of them. It reminded me of that wonderful New Year's Day as a young child.

A few weeks ago, we had a Christmas Mommy Store Extravaganza. Each child got to go to the Mommy store separately to pick out gifts for their siblings. The prized, most coveted gifts of all the glorious options were the red and green balloons. They are still enjoying a few dusty balloons leftover from Christmas.

Tonight I was planning on blowing up tons and tons of balloons for them to play with to bring in the New Year. But I have a nasty cough due to bronchitis and asthma (acommpanied with the flu and and ear infection). No one wants phlegm-filled balloons. And I'm not entirely sure, but I think I may have a mild latex allergy (kiwis kill). So, I'm going to bribe Danny to expend his energy into blowing up eleventy-billion balloons for the kids. This will be the first New Year's in a long, LONG time without something on t.v. We have decided to give up t.v., videos, dvd's, XBOX, Nintendo, etc. I expect we'll have a very productive new year.

I'll probably be sleeping in late tomorrow. So, I'll update y'all with my New Year's Resolutions in a couple days. I know you're just holding your breath!

8 comments:

Matt said...

That sounds like so much fun! I love balloons. We had those instead of flowers at our wedding reception.

lizbit said...

Good luck with giving up all those electronic entertainment devices. :) Let me know if any of you go through withdrawal. It's definitely a worthy goal (although one I'm not yet prepared to make ...)

P.S. Yay for balloons!!

Rach said...

I love the balloon idea, I can't wait to blow up balloons tonight and have them play with them. I forget about the little things that excite!! And way to go without tv and media stuff, I think you are giving me ideas for our Resolutions!!

A. said...

What a guy you have if you can get him to blow up all those balloons. Tim use to do animal balloons, so lucky for us we have little pumps. lol We're a lazy house.

I've wanted to go no tv for a while. I just love too many shows. Mostly reruns at night when everyone is asleep and I can watch HGTV or syndicated shows alone. We thankfully have a "no video games" rule for our home, so we only have tv and cable. We are planning to cancel cable though (the only show we REALLY watch is LOST. Sorry... gotta watch that one. :D ).

So what do you do with all those balloons in the lingering days after? Let them just shrivel up until no one wants to play with them anymore, or secretly get rid of them when all is asleep?

i'm erin. said...

what a great balloon idea and no tv idea! ummm...so what will you be doing with your extra electronics? say your nintendo? (cough, cough)

hahahahaha

Nikki said...

Amy-

The balloons mysteriously disappear a few at a time. ;) Several have popped already. And when I woke up this morning, Danny and the kids had drawn faces on most of them.

Piglet26-

The nintendo has already been spoken for.

Anonymous said...

I just have to say, I love your blog. You write such clever little things, please keep it up.

SuperCoolMom said...

What a fun way to ring in the New Year and create a fun memory for your kids! We like to have TV free summers, but if I tried TV free year round, it would be my hubby I'm fighting - although every time I find clothes and food in front of the tv, I threaten to do away with all of them.

Happy New Year! Hope you feel better soon!