The Eve of 2011

We spent the the eve of 2011 with some of our nearest and dearest friends on our former street, and had a true "red neck" style NYE. I mean you have to be a little bit red neck if your hanging out in your garage and in your driveway with a fire pit when it's 40 degrees outside when you could all go hang out inside just as easily, but where would the fun in that be?

We had a very nice spread as always, and Mike made lots of Italian food like meatballs, and sausage, etc. Cindy still has not forgiven the captain for what he did to her a couple years ago.

Claire enjoyed hanging out in front of the fire. She is very much a Daddy's girl, and Doug just eats it up!

The kids all hung out directly across the street inside Greg's house watching movies and eating pizza. They would pop out every now and again to see some of the fireworks that were going on around us, but that was about it. The adults all reminisced about the good old days when we were all still neighbors, and would hang out in the drive way together every weekend after we had all put our children to bed until the wee a.m. hours. It was almost like old times except that we now struggle to make it to midnight, and we no longer have our row of baby monitors sitting up on Doug's truck bed.

The Men. Doesn't this photo look like it could be on America's Most Wanted?

Our silly kiddos.

The Happy Couple.
This is a terribly unflattering photo of me. Oh, well!
The amazing news this time is we all made it to midnight our time. Last year we celebrated with the east coast and called it a night. I am so glad that we have kept up the red neck tradition. I love these friends dearly, and there is no where else I would have rather been. Here's hoping for a safe and blessed journey through 2011!