A Jen Too Many

We almost didn't make it to midnight last night. Their father and I spent the last half hour of 2009 chivvying the girls into staying awake. Well, kind of. I kept telling them that they were free to go to bed if they wanted to, and he kept reminding them that it was only a few more minutes until the new year. They really, really wanted to blow their horns, so they made it, but they were tucked in bed and asleep just a few minutes later.

It's so funny to watch small people trying to stay awake. We followed a tradition that I loved from when I was a kid. We spent New Year's Eve eating chips and dip and playing games. (I highly recommend Sleeping Queens - got it on sale and am glad I did so. A great game! Especially good for princess loving little girls.) The games went well, the junk food was greeted with joy, the root beer floats overloaded their little systems and left Youngest Girl Child complaining that she didn't feel good. Although I think that was also simple exhaustion.

Girl Child was slumped in a corner of the couch, glassy-eyed, staring at the TV while she waited for the ball to drop in Times Square. (She was very disappointed to find out that it wasn't literally dropped.) YGC insisted on cuddling with me on my bed, wrapped up in a comforter. She had discernible dark gray half moons under her eyes and clung relentlessly until five minutes to midnight when both the girls perked up, decked themselves out in hats and cardboard tiaras and sat glued to the countdown, clutching their horns.

The ball dropped, much noise ensued here, the dog started barking wildly in response, the girls laughed at the dog, OGC protested that she hadn't seen the ball drop, we rewound and showed her that it wasn't actually "dropped" but lowered carefully, and then everyone got hustled off to bed, much to Mommy and Daddy's relief, because we were tired, too.

This morning, we all slept in.