New Years recap

new years eve had us attending FIRST NIGHT AUSTIN!

What is that you ask? (copied from website) First Night Austin is a public celebration of the arts that revives the ancient tradition of marking the passage of time with art, ritual, and festivity. It is a family-friendly, affordable, and alcohol free New Year's Eve festival. a cherished tradition for Austin that celebrates the culturally rich and artistically diverse place we call home.

We checked out a few artistic installations before heading to the congress First Street bridge to check out the parade.

The first installation was a gazebo full of lights and wind chimes.










we also saw a bamboo tunnel filled with shifting lights,


an interactive bell tower,


a fireman and fire truck.

and then the parade.






we then went to the resolution clock tower to watch it burn. people posted resolutions on it all day and at 8:30 it went off in a blaze of fireworks and flames.

(i did not take this photo)

this was the "family finale" and it was pretty cool, it got a little scary when the sky was filled with embers. Big blazing embers. i thought akello might see the fireman get to work there for a second. Now AK wants to burn his clock, and all the clocks in the house.


(i did not take this photo)





New years day had us at my parents for lunch


and then home for dinner.


before we had dinner we used a smudge stick of sage to shoo-away the evil spirits.
shoo spirits! shoo!

t and i did our tradition of taking out our resolution box and going thru it, adding more. i like this, cuss we totally forget what we put in the box from a year ago. Sometimes you will pull out a card and itll say, "work at a school closer to home" and then you can say yay! i did it! and sometimes itll be like something that you could now care less about. Two other notable "wins" were....move the shed, and build the trail in the backyard. yay! we wont talk about the losses. haha!

today ak asked me where is motorcycle toy was, and i told him it was in his room, and he trailed off while saying, "yeah, ok" in a very, "whatever dad, you dont have a clue where any of my toys are, you just want me to leave the room" kind of way. it was hilarious.