New Year's Eve (yes, I know it was 17 days ago).

As most of you know, the Mummas enjoy some fireworks. :) Every year, we get one or two noisy ones to shoot off at midnight. You know our neighbors in Lincoln were accustomed to this. In fact, they'd usually come out front at midnight because they knew we'd be out there for a few minutes. See? We were providing a service. Plus, there are others on the surrounding streets doing the same thing.

Anyway, on our way back from Ohio we stopped in Indiana and bought a couple of fireworks for New Years. They're always noisy. There's at least one Saturn Missile with at least 100 shots (they whistle on the way up and pop loudly) and a couple of others. Now, since it's our first New Year's in Wisconsin, we didn't know what to expect. We tried to tell our neighbors on the other side of the duplex, but they weren't home that evening. I'm hoping they hadn't come home right before we shot everything off and got the crap scared out of their kids.

Maranda had a friend spend the night. And, not long before midnight, we cracked open the bottle of sparkling apple cider for them. (BTW, that stuff doesn't taste near as good as I used to think.) And, we opened a bottle of champagne for Mark and I. Then, the girls huddled inside with the dog (it was cold and the dog doesn't like loud noises!), while Mark and I went outside to set off the fireworks. Really, Mark is setting off the fireworks. I'm just good at standing and watching with a drink in my hand. (This is how it goes down for the Fourth of July, again as most of you know.) We've got the TV on so we can watch a countdown along with our timing and we countdown to midnight. When we get to midnight, Mark lights the first firework. Remember, we're kind of out in the middle of nowhere. But, there are still houses around. The first one goes off and completely echoes throughout the entire neighborhood. It ends and there's COMPLETE SILENCE. NOBODY else is doing anything noisy at midnight. And, it's kind of foggy. It's like the Twilight Zone. My reaction (of course) is to start laughing and assume that someone will call the cops. Fireworks are illegal, you know. So, I open the back door and tell Maranda and her friend to not answer the door if the police knock...come get us and we'll answer it. :) Meanwhile, Mark is lighting the second firework. Again, it's LOUD. Thankfully, when that one ended, we started to hear a couple of other fireworks way off in the distance and some people yelling Happy New Year. THANK GOD! I could not have handled it if people here didn't do anything for New Year's. That would have been too much! And, thankfully, nobody called the police. That would have been a little embarrassing to explain to Maranda's friend's parents. I'm not quite sure how I'd start that conversation.

So, anyway...Happy 2007. Be glad we didn't start the year with a citation from the local police. I hope your new year started off with just as much good luck!