The Countdown to Midnight

It's a long time from 5:30 p.m. to midnight, as the girls can attest.

At 5:30, we dropped them off at Tante Frans' house while we went to a wedding reception. We didn't make it to the midnight champagne toast, but that was just fine, since the girls were ready to spend the rest of the night with us.

As you can see from the picture on the left, Veronica enjoyed her first wedding reception in the company of Kathy B., one of dad's co-workers.


New Year's Eve annually serves as a family "game night" where we re-introduce the girls to classic (Scrabble) and not-so-classic ("Scene It") board games.

So how many of the girls stayed awake to see America's oldest teenager (Dick Clark) ring in the new year? Emily, Olivia and Veronica (who took a catnap around 10 or so).