New Years Eve

   For New Years Eve weekend this year, my BFF/ Full Sail roommate Ryan was in town again with the Ringling Circus. She had some extra Christmas days off and then went back to work today, with the show performing two weeks later. We didn't get to see her husband Ben because he already switched to the Ice Show and was touring in Providence, Rhode Island. Ryan and I joked that she lived with us for two years since she stayed with us the last day of 2016 and the first day of 2017! On Saturday I picked her up at 11am and showed her the house that was our second choice (on W Illiana St). We decided it would have been a cooler place to live if we just finished Full Sail and weren't having kids for a while. But since we already waited 5 years to "be ready", the house we bought seemed better suited for a family. We still mention often to each other that we really like our house! 

   I brought Ryan back to our house and Brian (the other teacher Michael works with at VAMP) came over to help him with the deck. They just got it finished tonight!! Ryan and I went to Target so I could look for maternity jeans and I got Chip some little plush toys for 90 cents each- they were actually considered Christmas ornaments, 70% off. 4 of the 5 I got were animals (fox, lion, giraffe, wooly mammoth) so those can definitely be played with year-round. So can the pink Santa gnome. 

   Later we went to the store to get Michael and Brian some alcohol as requested, and picked up two pizzas. Ryan let me "force her" to watch the first four episodes of Season 4 of Glee, since she hadn't seen any of the episodes after all the main characters graduated from high school. Then Michael and Brian watched Rat Race with us, and then we just talked the last 45 minutes of the year. I was surprised that I was able to stay up until midnight since 9pm has been my average bedtime for the past two months. At 11:45 I found the New York channel where they sing and do the countdown, so we streamed that on my phone (we don't have cable) being able to watch it on the television screen using Apple TV. The countdown was uneventful as I feel like all of the holidays have been forced upon as lately and we're all going along with one big prank and it's really still just the end September. 

   But it beats 2014 when Michael and I watched "Guardians of the Galaxy" and both went to sleep at 10:30. Last year we celebrated with our friend Amber (and Brian again). Michael played a Star Wars video game as Boba Fett then we watched "Fanboys", and threw pretty smoke bombs in the road that were all different colors. Here's an Instagram picture from that night at her house: 

   The other night Michael gave me a few good kisses at midnight then we went outside to watch the fireworks that people were setting off around in neighboring areas. Yesterday Ryan and I saw the movie "Passengers" at the AMC. We both liked it and I was interested by the twist at the beginning! We ate leftover pizza and hung out at the Artegon mall for a while until I had to take her back. 

I hope everyone else had a great holiday and are enjoying 2017 so far!!