Get Ya 2008 On!

So we had a fine time over at Molly and Ted's place celebrating the New Year. For myself, nothing that looked like it might be edible was off limits. I think at one point I pulled a branch off of the Christmas tree and started gnawing on it. Yes, it was gorging on an epic scale (for me) and football, football, football- yard and boob tube versions.

The boys thinking up a game plan. Notice Byron's uncanny resemblance to Bill Belichick.

Max and JT kicking off. This is moments before John zeroes in on Nanny Kate and tries to take her legs out.

Max practicing his poses for future Heisman candidate photo shoot. Looks may be deceiving as Max's forty yard dash speed, unlike most Heisman candidates', is about that of a cement truck if it had legs.

What I imagine is Max's inner dialogue- "After I play football outside, I must come in and watch it on TV, naturally, with my fellow rabid football enthusiast and the one from whom I am cloned, Uncle Charlie."

Emily enjoying a bowl of gumbo. I looked a lot like this with my bowl...except I'm not nearly as cute, and my face was buried in it.

Mary Grace looking pretty in lavender. There is no way you will ever convince me that this is not the cutest bay EVER!

There he is. Our little LSU fan. Oh my God, my eyes! My eyes! The burning! Make it stop!

Johnny T tearin' it up on his new scooter from Santa. As he so eloquently put it, "Look, Nanny Kate! Spiderman scooter! Iz so cool!"

I just think this is one of the cutest pics of JT ever. And Sam took it!

Later, the men put on a fireworks show for all of us. Then Byron and I took all the kids (except Mary Grace) to the movies. Emily was a champion. It was like she had a Ph.D. in Advanced Kid Wrangling. We saw Alvin and the Chipmunks, quite possibly one of the worst movies ever committed to film. Words don't exist to describe it- inane? banal? suicide-inducing? All too generous. Of course, the kids loved it. Max was standing up and dancing to "the music" (and I use that term in the loosest of all possible definitions) while Gabe, Sam, and Noah were bobbing heads and clapping along. All JT was worried about was controlling the popcorn bag. After eating approximately half of it, he leaned over and said, "This is some good popcorn, Nanny Kate." Really? I guess that death grip on the bag and your face planted in it should have tipped me off, JT.
All in all, barring those unfortunate incidents with gumbo, ribs, and brownies on my part, it was a great first day of 2008. Now the second day of 2008? Well, let's just say a phone call from the Saturn dealership telling me it would cost 400 dollars to fix my car was the first clue that those patented Mottram Son of a B**CH!!! moments weren't left back in 2007. Sigh.