New Years Eve Eve!

Back on Thanksmas, Papa & Ruth gave these wonderful baskets with all sorts of fun things including money to go to the lights at the Puyallup Fairgrounds. A couple days after Thanksmas I went online and there were only 2 spots still available....9pm-10pm on 12/30 or 12/31. I chose December 30th because we typically celebrate New Year's Eve at Ga-Ga & Pa's on the 31st. 

At Christmas we found out that the Kuch family would not be able to make it to New Year's Eve this year. One of my main goals during Christmas break was to have as many days as we could without us going anywhere. I know that sounds weird after the year 2020...that we would want to stay home more, but really we had a great year and made the most of it as you can see from this blog. 

Since Michael works in the water industry his day to day life hasn't really changed. He still goes to work everyday like normal. My extra gift to him for the holidays was to make his 11 days off be as relaxing as possible. Keeping this in mind, I decided to see if Ga-Ga & Pa would be okay celebrating New Year's Eve on the 30th instead of the 31st. That would make it so we would go only out on the 30th and be able to stay at home on the 31st. Ga-Ga & Pa were all for it! 

We came down around noon and got a bunch of snacks set up. We planned to have a taco bar for dinner...yay for an easy dinner! The kids went off and played for a bit and then later we started playing board games. That's usually what we do the whole day. We introduced Ga-Ga & Pa to Play 9 and they enjoyed it. We tried to play El Dorado and got frustrated. We played a few other games as well like voice Monopoly and Uno. After dinner Pa gathered the kids around for something fun! 

Normally when the Kuch's are here we play a silly game and the kids get gifts. This time around there was no game there was just gifts. Pa read some fun statements that he wrote to each of the kids. I asked him to send them to me so I could include them in the blog. 

For Bein’:  THE FIRST BORN!!  The TALLEST,  For LOVIN’ Books,  And Playin’ Mine Craft,  Monopoly,  Other Board Games,  Card Games,  Like Tripoli,  AND For Buildin’ EXCELLENT Sandbox Volcanos . . .   I Present THIS GRAND PRIZE TO:  O.W.E.N.  Owen Michael Martin!! 

SIDE NOTE:  I LOVE the memory of askin’ Owen:  “How do You spell Your NAME??”   HE must’ve been 2..   AND He said:  “O.W.E.N.  Spells:  Owen Michael Martin!!”   I’m not sure that O.W.E.N. Believes,  that he said that… 

For Bein’:  THE FIRST TO BE BAPTIZED!!  The GRAND MASTER Of Bey Blades,  For LOVIN’ and WANTIN’ GAGA From DAY 1!!   For Lovin’ Red Shirts AND Shoes Too,  And For Never EVER EVER Bein’:  JACKSON FROST . . .   I Present THIS GRAND PRIZE TO:  Jackson Daniel Martin!!

For Bein’:  THE FIRST,  FEMALE Martin Child!!  For LOVIN’ Logan,  Kendra,  Lilyann,  Addison,  Anna,  PLUS:  Daddy Martin,  Mommy Martin,  Owen Martin,  Jackson Martin,  Zeke Martin,  Gaga Martin,  AND Pa Martin . . .   I Present THIS GRAND PRIZE TO:  Ella Grace Martin!! 

For Bein’:  THE FIRST To Get A GAZILLION 100% At The Martin Family Christian Academy!!  For Bein’ The Shortest,  Busiest Jitterbug,  For LOVIN’ Dinosaurs,  legos,  Star Wars,  Mints,  AND MORE Than Just ONE HUG . . .   I Present THIS GRAND PRIZE TO:  Zeke Russell Martin!!  

This was such fun for the kids to hear all those neat things about themselves. The gifts they got included fun things that were personal to them. Jackson got hand wipes with a poop emoji on them, Zeke got his very own container of mints, Owen got this big box of chewy Nerds, Ella got white Tic Tac's. They all got a $10 Starbucks gift card and a box with apples slices and caramel. Unfortunately I didn't know that those needed to be refrigerated until a couple days later. I felt so bad!! All the apples had gotten mushy! :( 

We left about 30 minutes prior to 9pm to get to the Holiday Magic Lights at the fairgrounds. I thought it wouldn't be so busy since it was later at night, but there were lots of people there. 

There was a long line to get in, but thankfully it moved pretty quickly. 

It was fun driving by all the tree displays that were set up by different businesses. 

As we were driving in we could see different inflatables. I thought it would be fun if they had a scavenger hunt for certain things. When we got up to the front they actually did hand out a little scavenger hunt paper. When you found what was listed you got to scratch away the circle next to it to reveal a letter. Once you scratched them all you had to unscramble the word. 

We were having the hardest time unscrambling it and then Michael finally figured it out. It was WONDER! 

They had a whole section that you could drive to and get in line to get yummy fair food. I did not want to get a bunch of food at 9pm at night so we skipped it. Thankfully right around the corner was the stand for the Kettle Corn. You can never pass up Kettle Corn. That is actually our truck in this picture. I didn't take any pictures at the Holiday Magic Lights...these are all Ga-Ga & Pa's pictures. 

At the very end was this cool light tunnel you drove through. Right before this on the right was a bunch of movie scenes from different Christmas Movies. My favorite of course the the trashy trailer set up with a guy dressed like Cousin Eddie. He was so great! 

Inside the tunnel! 

Once we got to the end we turned in our unscrambled word and got 2 tickets to the spring fair. I'm not sure if we'll go, but at least two of us will get in for free if we decided to. It was a super fun activity that we probably wouldn't have even thought to do if it hadn't been for Papa & Ruth gifting the money for it and bringing it to our attention.