Dec. 31, 2014 / Jan. 1, 2015

I rang in the new year with some of my family at my first New Years party. My family usually hosts a party where we invite a couple of my cousins over, but this was the first one I've been invited to that wasn't at my house. It started off rocky because I found out that my cousin invited her friend Kaitlin (and Kaitlin's boyfriend) to the party, despite her knowing that Kaitlin bullies me, and I therefore can't stand to be around her. I didn't let her spoil my fun though, and I'm so glad I decided to go to the party anyways.
We got lost on the way there though, because they re-configured the road to my aunt's house, and she forgot to tell us that we now had to turn left instead of going straight. We ended up driving 20 mins the wrong way, but my phone's GPS saved the day, and we made it to her house safely.
Once we ate, we played this game my aunt made up, where there is this giant paper ball that is full of little surprises. You have to start unwrapping the ball while the next person in line starts rolling a dice and trying to roll a 5. Once they roll a 5, you have to stop unwrapping, move aside, and then the person behind you starts unwrapping while the next in line starts rolling. You continue this until all of the presents are unwrapped, and in order to keep the present, it must be completely unwrapped (and then you move on to unwrapping the next present). I got the cutest little pink piggy socks, and a pink highlighter.
After the game was over, we went downstairs and took pictures with costume pieces and props. It was a blast taking goofy pictures with my cousins, and I died laughing at the pictures of my uncle Billy. We went back upstairs and talked while we waited for midnight to roll around. Billy and I shared a seat while we looked at pictures from when he was a kid, then my uncle Gregg showed me pictures of fireworks from Thunder he had taken on his camera. We went back downstairs and watched the ball drop, then we got plastic champagne glasses and toasted the new year with sparkling cider and champagne. After that, Billy, Michael, Dylan, and Reed lit fireworks while we watched from the porch. Dylan had the funniest wolf howl, and Kristina followed it up with her monkey call. It was a pretty great night

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