Catch Up Post #1

Well, I haven't been the best of bloggers so far this year.

I've been a little preoccupied with other things.

(Getting more things posted for sale on my website

Albury Avenue

for instance. You really should check it out. It's had a little make-over and there's some cute things, I must say!)

So, on with catching up...

10 years ago was the big turn of the century (Y2K!) and my family decided we'd make a time capsule to be opened New Year's Day 2010. We filled out surveys and wrote letters to ourselves. We added a newspaper, a CompUSA ad (technology changes a lot in 10 years!), the kids added a couple of little items, and we included our party hats and "2000" glasses made from pipe cleaners.

We were really excited to open it on New Year's Day this year!

A lot has changed in our family in the past 10 years. Max was only a month old and we didn't even know about Emma! It was so fun to read the kid's letters to themselves. (Lee and I didn't write letters for some reason.) Elisabeth shared her's on her blog. It was really funny! You can read it here.

We decided to carry on with the tradition and made a new time capsule to be opened New Year's Day 2020.

We all filled surveys out and wrote letters to our future selves. (I have to say, it was weird to think of myself as 52 years old!) We put in a newspaper, which we were wondering if

newspapers will even exist in 2020, we all put in some kind of personal item, pictures, some party hats, a video game book, etc. and sealed it up tight with packing tape.

It's going to be fun to see in 2020!

New Year's Eve was different for us this year.

We ended up spending it at home with just our immediate family (minus Cole because he decided to go to a friend's party).

We decided to try out a couple new things -- whether they'll turn into traditions or not, time will tell.

First thing, we made our own party hats out of anything we had on hand. We didn't buy special supplies, we just used our creativity and this is what we came up with...

Pipe cleaner "glasses". He really didn't want to model these, can you tell?

Jake made a tiny hat out of a styrofoam cup. If my memory serves me right, I think he made

one like this in 2nd grade for Cinco De Mayo!

Elisabeth made a cute headband-style hat.

Max went for the huge cardboard box look.

Emma decorated a 3-corner hat. We even made our own blowers out of paper and straws. They didn't make noise so we had to do that ourselves!

And last but not least ...

Scott's Dad's Root Beer/Avatar hat!

Yeah, it was fun.

This may be a keeper.

The other new thing, I'm not so sure.

Lee, Scott, and Max decided that at the stroke of midnight, they would run around outside in only their bathing suits. (Lee did it with mittens and shoes on too!)

The rest of us, made tons of noise

and these fools took off in the snow!

Wahoos!

Then we came in for the traditional Sparkling Cider.

From the looks of these pictures, you might think it's something stronger, but no, it was just Apple Cider! (I promise.)

Oh boy.

Yes, fun was had in the Houghton's house New Year's Eve!