Happy New Year!

Here comes 2018.

For a nod to the old, the traditional, we have standing plans to gather with the McCords and the usual suspects - which includes two other families mas-y-menos their "kids".  We all just call this event, New Years at the Blue House.

The McCords have plans to sell their house, 2-story bunkhouse, barn and pasture and move back to the Dallas area in the coming year.  So Donna says. "Y'all, this is the last one - everyone do their darndest to get here this time!"

The Blue House
New Years Tradition at the McCord's
East Texas Estate

We had 18 answer the call, which included Inga and Sean winning the prize for 'furthest traveled' as they flew into Dallas from Portland on December 30.

It was everyone up and at 'em come morning of the 31st for our 104 mile journey to the Blue House where everyone was waiting to meet Sean.

Inga contemplates a pink
Girl Power Princess Sword in the Fireworks Warehouse

Part of the traditional New Year's Eve hoopla is to ignite our own pyrotechnics in the dirt drive off of the front porch as midnight approaches.  This spectacle is mainly the boys - but plenty of girls join in the thrill of making things explode, pop, boom and burst.  Sean was particularly pumped to throw his punk into the action, as he had never had an opportunity to feel the rush of launching exploding great balls of fire into the night; it isn't his fault he was raised in western Oregon where good, clean fun is outlawed.  There you are free to light up and inhale cannabis until you're as high as a bottle rocket, but you can't light up a bottle rocket while sober. We stopped 2/3 of the way out to the McCords to select some appealing pyro toys at one of the several warehouses opened for just such an occasion.

Racks and racks of explosive entertainment to choose from -
What do we need and what do we want?

Check out.
Check it all out.

Sean joined right in with all the good ol' boys and lit his share of artillery shells, roman candles, flaming fountains and fire crackers in proper celebratory fashion.

The Sunesons signed up to serve dinner to the gathering crowd on New Years Eve.  This year we decided to serve roast beef, buttered asparagus, pineapple + fruit salad with Italian bread.  Cheese cake for dessert.  It goes without saying that their was plenty of wine flowing at dinner too, including a few bottles imported from the Willamette Valley by Inga (who knows the vintner).

Fried Filipino Pork Rolls
are made fresh for a tasty mid-day appetizer

Donna's kitchen where snacks and meals seem constantly in preparation,  is one center of activity.  Once the snacks are finished, they rolled out of the kitchen to the other activity centers and served to those playing board games around the big dinner table and to those who are working feverishly to complete this year's jigsaw puzzle.

Plentiful snacks are to be had at the bar
on the periphery of the kitchen

Intense board game - who is the assassin? Who is the double agent?

The games is cleared off the dining table (briefly)
to make room for lunch

Brenda and Sue do there puzzling work
over cocktails and chatting now that all of  the
edge pieces are in place.

While dinner prep starts before all of the dirty dishes are even clean, the parlor activities begin anew, puzzles and board games.

The roast beef is in the oven and 18 people are working up an appetite.

Donna sets the "Kids Table" for
Dinner and Drinks

Done with lunch. Let the games resume!

Dinner dishes now cleared and cleaned.  It is time to move outside to ignite the night sky with our own fireworks display.

We add some color to the last night of 2017

This year we have to bundle up extra warm (and maybe that still wasn't enough) as it was around freezing with some tiny ice pellets falling into our smoke and tracers this year.

After the noise and smoke coming with much sound and fury, we retire to the warm indoors and get ready for the replay of the TV Times Square Ball-Drop Count Down... 5-4-3-2-1!  

Happy New Year!

James works on popping the top of a bottle of bubbly

Well, that year is over.  Let's all unwind and get ready for bed.

Inga and  Sean
Retire to the sofa after a long 2017 and a day of
Blue House Activities

A bright New Year's Day.  Pogo and I go for a walk down the hill to the pasture to see what 2018 looks like.  We'll be back before lunch to make sure we eat our greens for new year prosperity and our black-eyed peas for good luck.  A Texas tradition.

Pogo and I investigate the spring-fed stock pond
in the lower pasture

New Years Day
The sky is a bright blue
The air is crisp
and I hope it is a fruitful year for all of us!

Happy New Year to each and everyone!  Enjoy the journey.