I took my 10th day of vacation on New Year’s Eve. We all packed up in the afternoon and headed up to the Hedges Farm. We arrived just after Nancy & Ted. Arriving later were Alice & Bennett, Paul & Linda, Frank & Stephanie and her brother Greg, and Carol & Bob. Wayward Elizabeth & Harrison showed up late with the pizzas. We woke the starving children from their hunger comas to feed them.

The children had a great time by default, but none would fall asleep very easily in the upstairs room. Note: Splitting them up to sleep is probably a good idea.

The adults played Scattegories and Pictionary. Frank’s attemp to use “Teresa comma Mother” was thumbed down, much to Frank’s chagrin. And Ted got mad when his “Tennessee Senators” was voted down as a “T Politicians/World Leaders.”

Bob played with his video camera, recording much of he evening. Everyone shared champagne and kissed their spouses at midnight, except for Harrison. Harrison had been sent outside by Elizabeth to pop the cork so that no one would get hurt. I guess it took him longer than he thought because he missed the falling ball at Times Square. When he came in, he didn’t know that everyone had kissed, so I had to explain his duty to him.

Turns out that Harrison was the only real drinking victim for the night. He slept until noon the next day. He’ll do better next year just as Bennett did better this year.

Kathy and I drove down to the farm house where she had earlier staked out a whole bedroom to ourselves. Frank and Stephanie were still up, having left the party an hour earlier. Their bedroom door was wide open and the lights on, so I ducked my head in. Some serious discussion seemed to be going on, so I ducked my head back out again.

Frank’s voice lulled us to sleep.

This morning, we woke up for some breakfast. Having no children in the farm house, Kathy and I had the luxury of sleeping until 9. Bennett must have gotten tired of watching so many children, so he loaded up a bunch of them and brought them out to the farm house to wake up the parents.

I got to ride around the farm on Paul Barr’s dirt bike. That was fun. Danny and Nicole both enjoyed a tour on Paul’s bike with Paul.

Bennett, Ted, and I took vengence on a board in the pond with Bennett’s .22 Barretta.