Happy New Year!

We celebrated New Year's Eve this year by having John's family over. This first picture was taken at the end of the evening by Maribel's friend Lola. This is all of John's family (who lives here in NJ), except for Debbie and the boys, Joshua and Ethan, who needed to get to bed. Oh, and Maribel and Marcelo's son Joaquin was asleep upstairs, but is recognized here by the monitor in Marcelo's hand :)

From Left to Right, Top Row: Nayda (John's aunt) holding Avery, Amanda, Nila (John's mom) and Doreen (Jose's wife). On the Couch: Alexis and her dad, Jesus (John's brother), John, Reagan, Pepin (John's uncle, Nayda's husband), Jose (John's cousin/Pepin's son) and his daughters, Gabby and Lauren. On the floor: Maribel (John's cousin/Jose's sister), her husband Marcelo, and Uma, Maribel's friend Lola's daughter.

Reagan, Amanda, Avery and John

Debbie, Doreen, Lauren, Reagan and Amanda

John and and his uncle Pepin. John picked up Cuban food to serve for dinner, so he asked Pepin to help him carve the pork.

Debbie and Jesus

Marcelo and Reagan

Amanda and Reagan (putting the Christmas stockings on her feet as 'socks')

The kids had a great time playing with all of Reagan's toys and the adults had fun socializing and eating. When midnight approached, John and Maribel prepared two things for each person: a glass of champagne or sparkling apple juice, and a bowl of 12 grapes. When the clock turned to midnight, everyone toasted glasses, kissed, and wished each other a happy new year. Then we each ate our 12 grapes, one for each month of 2008 ~ a good luck wish for a healthy and happy upcoming year. The men went out to the front porch to honor another tradition that John's family has done every year, as they tossed a large pot full of water out the front door. I love that John has these fun traditions that we can continue to practice with our own kids.

After ringing in the new year, some of the gals had a great time playing games. We had fun with Scattergories, as well as a great new game called Whoonu. This was a really fun game that helped us get to know some interesting things about each other (like the fact that Gabby loves wrestling and Doreen loves coconut!). I highly recommend this game to anyone!