New Year's Eve

This year none of the Durbins came over as they have done for the past 9 or 10 years (or even more!), so we invited some friends to come hang out. Valerie (from soccer) and her family came with their PlayStation Guitar Hero. We spent most of the night stumming the guitar...

And then Jo Ann and Brian came with Shannon and his wife...

Emily, for some reason, spent most of the night on her own playing her DS

And the boys were pretty quiet doing the same...

At midnight, Jo Ann resurrected a long forgotten tradition of banging pots and pans at Midnight

and when the kids came in from banging the pots and pans, they warmed their frosty toes in front of the fire.

Shortly after midnight, I snapped pictures of those around me (except Valerie and Charles snuck away)...

Overall, we had a very enjoyable evening of eating, drinking, playing games, and just hanging out.

Here's hoping 2009 bring lots of good things our way!

Happy New Year!