Happy New Year!

We've had plenty of excitement around here. With the Christmas hoopla, the joy of having six cousins visit, and a week with his parents off from work, Louis has had quite a full schedule. So in the interest of bringing the excitement level down just a bit, I didn't mention until about an hour before it happened that we were going to be ringing in the new year.

Louis was surprised, but he didn't complain. He picked out a party hat from our collection.

Then he chose instruments for each of us to carry in our parade.

When I showed him the paper cups we were going to use for our new year's toast, he literally danced down the hall. Our boy loves toasting.

As it turned out, an hour gave us plenty of time to read a few books, complete our preparations for the festivities, and stand staring at the cuckoo clock waiting for it to strike "midnight" and saying, "Maybe it isn't going to cuckoo. Are you sure it's going to cuckoo?"

We waited. And waited.

Then five minutes before the parade started, Louis traded his jingle bells for a squeaky elephant.

When the clock struck 12, we yelled, "Happy new year!" and hugged and kissed. Then the parade throughout the house began.

The photos definitely do not do the parade justice. Louis kept saying, "Again! Again!"

He stayed right behind Baba, spurring him on to go faster.

And he proudly carried his squeaking elephant.

Then it was time for the toasts.

We toasted 2011.

We toasted diesel engines--one of our standards--and a few other favorites.

Then, because Louis is a fan of Dr. Seuss, I said, "To the Lorax!"

"No," said Louis, with a mischievous gleam in his eye. "To the Onceler!"

Any bets on whether we were the only family in the world raising paper cups of decaf iced tea to the Onceler at 7 p.m. last night?

I shouldn't have been surprised. When I went in to get Louis up from his nap yesterday, I could hear him making his stuffed Grinch talk to his stuffed Max. The Grinch was saying, "I'm figgering on biggering and biggering and biggering and biggering"--one of the Onceler's lines in The Lorax. The funny thing is that Louis knows the Onceler is the not-so-sympathetic character who destroys the trees. He gets very sad to see the trees "fall down." But he still has some affection for the Onceler.

What can I say? He's such a soft-hearted boy. He even humored me with a few family self-portraits last night.



One year ago we didn't even bother to celebrate the new year. We were thrilled to have Louis home, but we knew it would be meaningless to him. And we were too jet-lagged to do anything more creative than turn the oven on for a frozen pizza.



Two years ago today we hadn't even seen a photo of Louis. (We got his referral on Jan. 4, 2009.)

 

In 2009 we met Louis.

2010 was our first full year together as a family.

And now we're entering 2011.

Who knows what this year will bring? 

Whatever comes, we'll be ready to toast the great moments and drown the bad ones in a cup of decaf iced tea. For everything else, well, we've still got that squeaky elephant. Oh, yes. And the Onceler, too.

Have a very happy new year!