Monday, February 8, 2016

Happy New Year

In honor of Chinese New Year today, I am posting pictures of our celebrations for the Gregorian calendar New Year... we had a fun week with the Cameron family staying with us, and extended Finlay family in town to play with as well.
We decorated candy houses during the week after Christmas this year.  It is always fun to see the ideas everyone comes up with and how different they can be. We were lucky to have a gorgeous day to keep the mess outside.
The adults all enjoyed a dinner out with our good friends at Buca di Beppo.  
The 4 oldest kids were invited to join us, and were so excited to be seated in their own booth across the aisle from us.  The toddlers all stayed home with babysitters.
We always love the chance to see the floats up close before the parade.  Preston was especially excited about the fire truck.
And the kids were all lucky enough to help place some of the plants on this float while we were there.
New Year's morning was spent at the parade route.  Kids loved continuing the tradition of running around and shooting each other with silly string while we waited for the parade.
The Disney float was huge-3 separate platforms with bridges connecting them.
We had a fun breakfast with the family at Santa Anita race track, watching the horses race.
Celebrated the new year with the smashing of our candy houses.
And had nights talking around the fire.