Bee is for BLESSED ...: New Year's Eve!

Just like Christmas Eve/Christmas, Zoe's first New Year's Eve celebration was awesome! My little girl can parrrrrrrtyyyyyy! Not sure how many 11-month-olds made it to the countdown, but mine sure did =) ... I did, however, force her to take a 30 minute "disco" nap around 10 pm.

NYE has always been a double celebration for my family because it also happens to be Tito Ton's birthday! Michael's family usually joins us for NYE as well so it's always a lot of fun to have everyone there ...everyone except Jay this year. He left for the Philippines on Dec. 27th to meet Mao's family and to also attend Mao's best friend's wedding. It's the first holiday Jay has missed with the family and his presence was greatly missed!!! Although we all wished he was there we all found solace in the thought of how wonderful of an opportunity it was to finally be able to meet Mao's family.

To add extra spice to the party, Tita Bot (our decorator/party planner extraordinaire) got fascinators for all the ladies (including Zoe) to wear! We all also prepared various dishes/appetizers for the occassion ... Mike and I were in charge of the cheese platter and we also baked some spanikopitas for good measure =) .

Zoe had a blast on NYE -- she really loved all the noisemakers and playing with Jaden and Kaylan. She also wore her "toddlers and tiaras" outfit (hey, I figured NYE is really the only time she can get away with wearing something so bling bling-ish). She also had a blast eating all the food the grandparents were so willing to feed her.

I've always enjoyed celebrating the New Year ... there's always a sense of "clean slatedness" that just feels so refreshing to me. I couldn't help but reflect on the same time last year and how pregnant I was and how my brain was full of thinking about giving birth to Zoe. Now, she's actually here with me twirling around a noisemaker and partying it up with the best of them. It's amazing how time has literally just flown by and how much fuller my life has felt since I've had a baby. I've learned sooooo much this past year about myself and my inner strength. I love that I have a brand new full year to continue to learn and to also create so many more beautiful memories with Michael and Zoe. God has been so good to us this past year and I trust that as long as we continue to keep Him at the center of each day of 2012, He will continue to shower us with the grace to see and feel how blessed we are and that He will continue to guide us toward the plan He has prepared.