The Kiefer Crew: 2010

What a fun way to end 2009! We were invited over to the Quinn's house for New Year's Eve with several other couples but it ended up being just us which was still so fun. Another couple stopped by for a cocktail and it was really fun to finally meet them. Our kids were spending the night at Mimi & Bumpa's so we had a kid-free New Years. This meant we might even stay up past 9:30!

Let me backtrack...the evening almost didn't happen. Maggie had had the 24 stomach flu 2 days before New Year's Eve and I'd had it the day before (the eve-eve as Chad & Ronni would say). We were both doing great all day so when I dropped them off at Mimi's for a sleepover, everyone was very excited. I left and came home to finish getting ready only to get a call from my mom that Maggie had thrown up all over the kitchen. HUH!?!? I called Liz (45 minutes before we were supposed to be there) and apologized profusely but I thought we'd have to cancel. I knew they'd probably gone to alot of effort and were serving steak and lobster so I felt terrible. The more I thought about poor Mags as I drove back to my parents to pick her up, the more I thought it was just too odd that she'd started throwing up again after being just fine all day. She hadn't slept well at all the night she was sick and then that day we'd had a playdate so she never napped. On top of that she ate tons of junk at the playdate so I started thinking maybe her already weak tummy couldn't handle it on top of being utterly exhausted. By the time I got there, she was literally doing twirls, calling herself a ballerina, and happy as could be. I talked my parents into letting her stay, called Liz (who thought I'd been messing with her the entire time) and quickly went home to change.

We had a fabulous dinner, drank champagne, and had fun conversations with dear friends. Thank you so much Liz and Brian for ringing in 2010 with us. We haven't made it to midnight in years!

The beautiful tablescape!