It’s been about 5 years since I’ve celebrated New Year’s Eve in Michigan and with my family.  Up until I was 18 or 19 I spent every one with my family doing basically the exact same thing. Those traditions were nice and we’ve held onto a few but it was nice to change it up a bit also. I made a big list of appetizers and spent most of the day preparing and making them. I also read my new year’s resolutions from last year and wrote new ones for 2014.

Then we got a little dressed up and went to a house party for a bit-just to feel a little more festive. We didn’t stay long because my sister wanted to get back to her little man which was fine by me (he’s a cutie!). We rang in the new year with family and struggled to stay up until 1:22 am (my official birthday time-it’s getting harder and harder). I’m pretty sure we were all asleep by 1:23 am. Ha! And then I was 30 but that’s another post.

^Walker and my nephew in their tuxes.
^Lincoln’s real parents. Ha!
^St Julian’s sparkling grape juice. A tradition that has lasted (although these day’s it’s almost too sweet).

My family is all over the place for Christmas so we usually celebrate more than once. A few days after Christmas I got to see my brother and exchange gifts with him. We also had dinner to celebrate his birthday (December 23rd) and mine (January 1st).

A couple days after that my mom and her husband and Walker and I went to stay at my sister’s and we had our little Christmas then. We decided to keep it small this year so each couple could spend $20 on each person. Sort of just fun stocking stuffer type things. We also got to put the baby in the famous Christmas sweater/dress. Hehehe.

^I made us all matching cowls for Christmas.
^HaHAHAHAHAHa!!!

After all of the Christmas celebrating was over Walker, my dad, and I all headed out. We had plans to visit the Detroit Zoo after my dad ran a few errands. Well it turned out to be one of those days. We drove about 45 minutes from my grandparents house (where we had been staying) and Walker realized he left his tripod. If we didn’t go back to get it, it would defeat the purpose of bringing it at all because we weren’t scheduled to be back until the end of our trip.

So we drove back after my dad ran his errand but maybe over half way back he realizes they didn’t give him is driver’s license back. Oy! So we pick up the tripod and head back to get my dad’s license. Since the zoo was on the way back we decided we’d go there first. I get out of the car and realize I’m missing one of my hand knit and favorite mittens. Holy cow! Turns out the zoo doesn’t allow dogs nor do they allow you to leave them in the car so we were turned away from the zoo. Ah! So my dad picks up his license and I look to see if my glove fell out there. It didn’t. Earlier in the day we stopped at a party store so I called them and they hadn’t seen it. I was pretty bummed and was hoping I misplaced it somewhere at my grandparent’s house. There was not much else to do about it at the time though so I tried to forget about it.

We finally headed north and stopped in Frankenmuth, MI and German themed town and home of the famous chicken dinners and Bronner’s the year round Christmas store. We strolled through the Christmas store and all got pretty overwhelmed-think the Ikea of Christmas stores. Yikes! We decided the next step was the brewery in town. It had been a day. We had some samplers, walked around the town for a bit, and decided to stay the night at my sister’s since her house is about 2 hours closer than my dads (I wasn’t complaining because it meant more nephew cuddles!).

^Walker took this one of Mago and it’s so awesome! Perfect portrait of a dog waiting for his master.

So the evening ended up being kind of fun and you know what else? The guy from the party store called me the night to tell me he found my glove in the parking lot! Woo! We all found our lost things.