And a happy new year...

I think I've only ever spent New Year's Eve at my parents' house in Pittsburgh. It was fun as a kid, and then there were a couple years when it was like "okay, it's midnight, and I'll be up for another three hours..."

Anyway, I wasn't really planning on doing anything because I worked all yesterday and I had to work all today. But I texted my best friend Kirstine--she's always good for last minute plans. I went over to her place and her boyfriend Mike and his friend made dinner for all of us, we watched a movie and played with cats.



Then we went outside to a little frozen pond in a shallow in the woods (and when I say "pond" I mean "body of water outside and bigger than a bathtub but not by much"), cleared off a piece of it (partly with our sticks) and played boot hockey to ring in the new year. Half of the pond was underwater (it had been raining) so we used the part that had gotten snow when the rain turned to snow, and by the time we were done, our rink was more water than ice, too, because it warmed back up a bit.


I really wanted my camera, but it was too wet so I took one cell phone picture to commemorate.

It was dark except for the snow, it was warm at around freezing, it was good friends and a good spirit of competition and fun. It was the most Minnesotan thing I've ever done, ever. Possibly the most Minnesota experience there is.

We were trying to make it to the new year, but couldn't stick it out any longer and went back inside. Someone looked at the clock and it was 12:02, so we all said "Happy New Year", decided to say we were playing hockey to ring it in, and then I went home and everyone went to bed because we're old now.

Hopefully within the next couple days, I'll get a chance to write about the past year and the year ahead, but for now, I am quite content with the time in between. :)