a peek inside the fishbowl

This was the first year that the girls stayed up to see in the New Year. Perhaps we were pushing it. The girls, after all, are only 4.5 and 6.5 years old. But since (a) Mark and I didn’t have any plans (we rarely do), and (b) the girls were really curious about what happens at midnight? we decided that we?ll try it out and see what happens.

Frankly, I didn?t think either or them would make it to midnight, but they did!

We started the festivities with dinner. It?s our new tradition of ?eat your very favourite food? on New Year?s. It?s something we did with our friends Jeff and Leah to celebrate NY 2000. Everyone came together with their favourite foods. It was yummy, although I have the distinct memory of feeling completely paralyzed with fatigue afterwards. If memory serves, in addition to appetizers we had steak, onion rings, mussels in leek/garlic/cream sauce? who knows what else.

Anyway, I like this tradition, and so we’re running with it. The girls? choice of food will amuse you. Sarah the younger, who eats things like asparagus, goat cheese, broccoli, smoked salmon and sushi, decided she wanted Kraft Dinner. Emma, the older and pickier eater of the two, decided she wanted spaghetti and tomato sauce. No surprise there.

Mark and I decided upon tempura for ourselves, so we made a lovely batter, a dipping sauce, and deep-fried a bunch of shrimp, green beans, carrot slices, sushi, and onion rings. It was yummy. Funny thing though, when you?re eating small bits of food right out of the fryer you?re tricked into believing that you?re not eating very much when in fact the very opposite is true. We stuffed ourselves silly, drank a bottle of wine, and found ourselves ready for bed at 10:00 p.m.

We tried to snap out of our food-induced fatigue for the sake of the girls. They were very excited by the idea of staying up late. But what to do with them? We read and played some games, and eventually crashed in front of the TV. CBC was broadcasting hockey. And I think CTV was broadcasting a feed from MTV. The show seemed to be featuring rappers for crying out loud. We watched the programming for about 6 seconds. Talk about uncanadian. Unholiday. Unbearable. Yo yo yo mofo!

Eventually we settled on a New Year?s broadcast from Niagara Falls, an outdoor (!) concert with Great Big Sea and their repertoire of Newfoundland drinking songs. Now that?s a rockin? time! I feared however, having to explain screech, cod kissing and the odd tale of a fisherman?s demise.

At around 11:30 the girls? eyes started rolling back into their heads. They required a little prodding, but they made it. We counted down and all kissed and hugged at the stroke of twelve and all promptly went to bed. And in case you?re wondering, they didn?t really sleep in much. *sigh*