The Year of the Ox! 2009

Welcome 2009- The year of the ox. Uncle James, Krystal and a few other little helpers created this realistic ox head for us to smash open on New Years Eve. We were quite impressed with their work of art. As usual, we had a fantastic party with the Redd clan. The day was spent shopping and preparing tons of different, delicious appetizer type dishes. There is always a huge feast to give thanks for the bounty of the preceding year and to ring in the new year. The night is spent watching movies on a huge screen and playing games galore.
The kids love it when it is pinata time.
Here is Katry just after giving it a good whack.
King of the ox. Brig is sporting the head-post candy. It didn't make it out of the 11 year olds this year.
Seth and Kaleb both make a big dent in it.

Even little Kai gave it a whack, although when it turned around to face him, he looked a little fearful.

Once the countdown was over the noise began. There was a lot of pot banging, horns blowing and tooting. The kids all marched down the street making as much ruckus as possible. There was also a lot of hugging and kissing and rejoicing. Then we pulled out the bubbly and everyone got to make a toast to the new year. I was ridiculously tired and said something terribly incoherent like- "To a healthy, mental brain." I imagine I know a little of what it feels like to be drunk, I was surely loopy. There was a range of other silly things like the tearing of ones socks in honor of Mike serving in Germany (Don't ask- its an inside story). We also all got to speak with Sperry on Skype. He is serving in Iraq and we are looking forward to them both being back on American soil in the near future.

Brigham's Grandad was there, so we were thrilled to get in a four generation shot with all the boys.

It was a great party and we love being with the fun loving Redds. Thanks for a great week!