all is calm

Last night both girls had friends over - the house was in giggle overload. It didn't help that we went back to Target to buy more candy, so they were all sugared up. Both sets of girls bought gingerbread house kits, so the kitchen is sticky with frosting and candy.

Tonight we're not really doing anything for new years. The family was invited to the annual shoot-em up New Years Eve paintgun war/potluck dinner, but it was held at a friends house a 2 our drive away and I really didn't feel like traveling that far. Angel #1 went there with friends though, he just can't resist a good paintgun war. Angel #2 is roaming town with her pink-haired BFF, then spending the night, WE is enjoying the holiday vicariously through a fireworks display on World of Warcraft. Angel #4 and her buddy were going to spend the night in the treehouse, but hubby deemed it unsafe, so the venue changed to the trampoline instead. We were just starting to take bets on how long they'd last out there when they came tromping into the house with all their gear claiming it was too cold to sleep out there. They made it to 9:00.

We can hear fireworks going off all over the place. I hope people are careful. We've got a bit of a drought going on right now and for the last few days, there's been a wildfire burning about 20 miles away from us - the 3rd in the last 2 weeks. They're having trouble putting this one out because it's in an inaccessible area - the only roads leading there are 4WD only and the forest canopy is so thick over the area that's burning that they can't dump water on the fire from helicopters. Every once in a while I catch a whiff of smoke in the air, though not as bad as the fire from 2 weeks ago - that one stunk up all the clothes I had hanging on the clothesline. Fireworks on New Years is one of the Hawaiian traditions we've had to get used to. You don't hear too many fireworks going off in Wisconsin on midnight of New Years, instead, everyone just hugs each other, thrilled that they made it through another year without freezing to death or being drained dry by F-16 sized mosquitoes. But in Hawaii, there are more fireworks on New Years than on July 4th. We'll be able to see the big displays the hotels put on from our front lanai - we've got a view of the entire town from there.

Anyhooters, I'm not planning on staying up til midnight unless the fireworks don't let me sleep. It's only a little after nine and I'm ready to hit the hay already. I DID watch the ball drop in Times Square though, courtesy of Hulu. One of the benefits of living in Hawaii is that I'm still awake to see that event since it happens at 7pm our time.

Happy New Years everyone - see ya in 2010!