New Years Eve 2019

Makai, Halle, Quinn

Party people waiting for the countdown (including Jess and Chris!)

Eleanor, Makai, Brian, Halle, Quinn, Bridget

Last year we allowed (haha) Jen and Chad to go to California for New Years Eve, but this year they were back and hosting again. We’ve gone to their house for New Years Eve every year except two, all the way back to 2005!

Makai stayed up til midnight. AND LATER! I don’t think we left Jen and Chad’s house until 2 am! He did not enjoy his midnight toast of sparkling apple cider but did have so much fun playing downstairs during the party. This was the first year in maybe 10 years (?) that Jen and Chad did not hire babysitters. That is Quinn’s job now! We threw him a 20 at the end of the night!

Catie won!

Dallas, Makai, Halle, Brian

Maggie won (sort of) !

Past midnight we played a lot of rounds of LRC. It always seems like you won a TON of money, when really it’s like $16. Always love Jen and Chad’s party for it’s casualness and nothing like spending the new year with friend’s you’ve known for almost 15 years!

PS. If you were wondering, Dallas did wear The New Years Eve sweater!

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2019

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2016
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2015
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2014
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2013
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2011

2010

2009

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2007

2006

2005

New Years Eve 2018

For the last 13 out of 14 years, we’ve gone to Jen and Chad’s for New Years Eve. There was one year they were out of town. And then this year they were out of town again. The nerve! Most of our friends were not liking the idea of dressing up and going out and doing anything crazy, and since we have the space now, we decided to host a party. Dallas made corn chowder and pulled pork sandwiches with Asian slaw. We did not dress up. We played pictionary and left right center. We ate our faces off and had drinks. Sound perfect to me!

Dallas still wore his New Years Eve sweater!

Makai was very ready, even before anyone arrived!

 Chapo did not get the memo about it being a casual party.

Kelly made champagne jello shots.

Adam brought some boxes of White Castle burgers. I don’t know when was the last time I had one. I think I’ve only had White Castle once in my life. I went to town. LOL

 Mari and Makai were quick friends even though it’d been a long while since they’d seen each other. Makai is holding a whistle that Kelly and Todd brought back for him from a recent trip to Costa Rica.

Kelly doing her best at Pictionary.

I used to have a tradition of baking Irish Car Bomb cupcakes every New Year’s Eve but I fell off of it around the time Makai was born. This year I brought it back!

 Makai made it to about 12:01 am and then crashed HARD.
In the early hours of the new year we played Left Right Center. I went to bed maybe at 1 something, but some people stayed up super late. Kelly, Todd and Chapo stayed the night!

Todd & Kelly’s New Years Eve Party

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JP and Damian

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Marty, Todd, Dallas

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Rachelle, Josh, Vanessa, Kelly

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Rita and Mike, Mike and Ella

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Kelly, Liz, Maria, Jessica, Tonya

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Rachelle and Rita

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Todd, Kelly, Liz, Maria, Jeanine, Randy

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Rachelle and Dallas

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Josh

This is the third time we’ve gone to Todd’s house for New Years Eve (NYE 2009, NYE 2011). On NYE 2010, we hung out with this group of friends too, but at Frasca, not at Todd’s house. The last few years our habit has been to go to Jen and Chad’s New Years Eve party early, then head out with these other guys late, but this year, for the first time in about a decade, Jen and Chad didn’t have a New Years Eve party! They extended their Christmas visit in California to go through the new year. It all worked out fine, though. We just headed to Todd’s earlier than usual.

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Kelly and her famous jello shots.

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Simon and Bernie begging for treats!

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Pictionary!

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Pictionary!

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Marty

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Todd drawing.

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Mike, Marty

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Dallas stealing the mic from Katie

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Songbirds

Dallas made his famous Korean short ribs and I made my Irish Car Bomb cupcakes. Kelly had a ton of snacks, some punch and jello shots, and a ton of people brought wine and beer and champagne, so we were all set. So set up. So much delicious food and drinks! I got the new Wii U last week (more on that later) and we brought that over. Sing Party, a karaoke-ish game, was a big hit of the night. We also played a rousing game of Pictionary. We also played a little Left-Right-Center. I lost $6. Boohoo.

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Kelly and Todd trying to get a midnight family photo with Simon.

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It didn’t work!

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Mike and Larry

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Kelly and Marty

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Kissyfaces.

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Liz and Maria

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Rachelle and Josh

I don’t really know what happened after midnight. It’s a blur. We ended up sleeping in Todd’s spare bedroom so we wouldn’t have to drive home or try to get a cab. I went upstairs at about 3:30 am and was getting chastised for it!! I’m not sure how late the few party stragglers were up!

Happy New Year!

First Night on Kauai


Ho’Onani Estates


Matt & Dallas in the Ho’Onani Pool

We checked into Ho’Onani Estates at 3 p.m., after all of our wedding-related meetings. Dallas and I were the first ones there, which turned out good, because we wanted the first pick of bedrooms. As people arrived they each picked rooms. As people settled in we all headed out to the pool. The pool wasn’t huge and the yard wasn’t huge, but it was big enough. And it was so refreshing after a long day of travel. Limey and Tien made pina coladas and they were so delicious to sip next to our private pool!


Kristin & Limey, already passed out!


Tien makes a pretty tasty pina colada for a guy from New York City

After a while, my parents came by for a visit, to see everyone, and to check out the houses. They were staying a few blocks away from us at the Poipu Kapili condos. They’d been to Kauai one time before but it was 10 years ago. I’m sure they were happy to be back!


From the lower right: Jen, Chad, Matt, Kristin, Brian, Trent, Loden, Ross


Limey’s snake was thirsty for pina colada!

At night Matt grilled some steaks and we ate them with a caesar salad and poke at the front house. Important to note houses because we tried to switch off visiting at the front and back houses so that one house wouldn’t always be up late. If we switched off, at least you could rest every other night!


Getting out of this tequila shot was the best thing I did all night!


Left, Right, Center Game. From Cousin: Cousin, Shannan, Jill, Jen, Trent, Loden, Ross, Limey, Matt, Tien, Kristin, Brian


From the lower left: Jill, Trent, Loden, Ross, Matt, Tien, Kristin

Later on Trent and Loden visited from the Sheraton, less than a 10 minute walk away. And my brother and Amanda, who were staying with my parents at Poipu Kapili, came by. We had a lively game of LRC. There were several people who never played before and the game got pretty intense. Also, not everyone had dollar bills so there were a lot of IOUs floating around. I still have a few “Ross dollars” and I don’t think anyone’s seen the end of them yet!


IOUs

One more thing, we got our first wedding gift of the trip from Cousin that day. Here’s what it was:


Wedding gift from Cousin.

How funny are these coasters? The first two are from my first trip to Kauai, when Dallas and I first met. The three where cousin has a mustache, otherwise known as the Coustache, are from the mustache-growing contest. The last one is… I don’t know! Some kind of sushi-eating binge. We used these coasters in the houses all through the week!

Happy Hawaiian Birthday

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Kalbi Ribs
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Katsu Chicken
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Mac Salad
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White Rice, Katsu Chicken

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Dallas said the High Life in the can was an integral part of his meal.

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Rachelle’s Dinner

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Birthday brownies with make-do candle.

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Left Right Center Dice

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Left Right Center Dice

On Friday we celebrated Dallas’ birthday by inviting a bunch of people over and getting Hawaiian food catered in from Aloha Grill. We had kalbi ribs, katsu chicken, mac salad and rice. Billy, these photos are just for you!

After dinner we had brownies that Kristin made. The candle there isn’t some sort of weird Hawaiian thing, it’s the closest to birthday candles we could find in the house. Can’t have a cake without at least one candle for a birthday wish.

To work off all the food we played an epic game of Left, Right, Center. 12 people x 3 dollars/round x 3 rounds. No one could believe it pushed into a third round. Jen took home over $100 by rolling that dot at the end. Texas Hold’em was next. I went to bed at 2:30 and there were still 3 people in the game with pretty evenly distributed chips. I think it went on til like 4am, when Darren ended it by taking down Trent.