Happy New Year

2013's arrival was a blur.  You saw the poster I made up advertising our New Year's Eve party at the bar.  To say that it was a success would be an understatement.  Around seven in the evening my nephews and I went to the bar to blow up balloons.  We hung a huge net from the ceiling and filled it with balloons.  We also had a few helium-filled ones.

Around 8:30pm we closed, cleaned up a bit and headed to dinner at my sister-in-law's house.  Dinner was delicious, although, as always there was too much food to properly appreciate any of it!  I've said it before, but I'll say it again, Angelines's family reminds me a lot of my own when they're all together: lots of laughter, jokes, teasing and general rowdiness.  Things would be downright dangerous if the Wilbanks were in the same house! :)

Blowing up balloons in the back. ;)

At tweleve o'clock we ushered in the new year with the traditional twelve grapes (eaten in the first twelve seconds of the new year), quickly kissed everyone, toasted with cava and then rushed out the door to open the bar.  Angelines had two people working with her plus me...and the four of us were up to our eyeballs in work!  We had made a photo-call for people to take pictures with, but by 2am, there were so many people that it was impossible to take pictures with it and I was too busy pouring drinks, cleaning glasses, and restocking refrigerators to take them anyway.  I got a few at the beginning of the night and a few more when things cleared up a bit around 6.

It was a good night.  The balloons were a hit, although people popped them in about two seconds!  We handed out glow bracelets, earrings, glasses, rings and straws as party favors and around 5 we cut the cakes my sister-in-law made for us to serve.  The place was packed.  Angelines was worried we'd run out of glasses because people were ordering faster than we could get them washed!  ...But we didn't.  We were busier than we've been in years, but it all worked out.  You could say we started the year on the right foot. ;)

I came home around 6:30 to let my poor puppy out of her kennel (after nearly 12 hours!), and called my parents to wish them a Happy New Year.  Angelines got to bed around 8.  Needless to say we spent most of the first day of the year sleeping.

Here are some of the pictures I got before things got to crazy:

All ready for dinner...

One of A's expert bar-hands sporting some of our glowing  party favors.   Check out the light-up balloons we found!

 

One of the few pictures at the photo-call.

...Filled to bursting!