bring on the bubbly and ban the bloating.

WHOOOO!!! Happy New Years everyone!! First post of the year. I guess that means it better be a good one.

I should start it out with how our New Years Eve went down, because I have to say, SO awesome.

So in James's family, they typically do fondue for dinner on NYE. I don't think I have ever actually had real fondue before. Chocolate fountains were always the tradition for us, and it was completely different. Even more, I have never tried cheese fondue. And it was definitely worth the wait!

Ok, sorry about the terrible lighting on all of these photos. My camera didn't adjust in time and I'd much rather have the photo than spend all my time trying to adjust the settings and missing it, am I right?

Anyway, what a spread! Along with the freaking delicious cheese fondue that Ana made (she is literally a real life Martha Stewart...without the criminal record), we had apples (yeah, you would think it would taste weird? But you'd be wrong. It was one of my favorite things to put the cheese on! I know, crazy!) and bread. In fact, my awesome chef of a husband made HOMEMADE wheat rosemary & olive oil bread and we could not stop eating it! He did an amazing job!!! It was definitely my favorite part. I could've eaten just that and been delighted. And there was some white bread from the store too, and also yummy! I'm telling you, we really hit the nail on the head with this one!

Then there was chicken & steak chunks and I've never seen what they do with it before. I had to ask James, which made me feel like a little toddler, but he was sweet about it. There was a pot of hot oil and you just stick the meat on a fondue stick (skewer?) and put it in the oil and then pull it out about a minute later. Totally cooked, totally yummy. Especially with the cheese. We were literally scraping the cheese out with bread by the end, AND Ana had to make a second batch! Crazy good.

They also had little dipping sauces for it so that you could basically have whatever you wanted with the meat. Teriyaki, honey mustard, spicy ginger...mmm!

I know, I'm rambling about the food, and I should stop because this post would go on forever! But it was a major highlight of the night...for me at least. One of the best dinners I had all year!! Oh! And James made the YUMMIEST punch too! Ginger ale, Kool-aid packet, sherbet, and ice. I think that was it...there was hardly any left at the end of the night, and we made a drink dispenser full, so that tells you right there that it count for something. It was sooo yummy delicious!! Sorry, the word "yummy" was starting to get weird...

Poor Ana. We ate the other one so fast that she really didn't get to eat until the end!

And for dessert, we had some dark chocolate fondue, pound cake chunks, bananas, strawberries, and pineapple. Endless combinations!

After being stuffed past the rafters, we had some other friends over to play games! That was the fun part. I don't think I have sweat so much from being so into games as...well, recently, as I did last night. The first game they played was Quelf, which is basically every game rolled into one. There's curses, charades, funny things you have to do...it's fun. But there weren't enough pieces so the girls sat out and watched all of the 8 guys play. It was pretty hilarious.

But then, we played Heads Up, which is a game that Ellen DeGeneres plays on her show. You basically try to get the person holding the ipad, or whatever has the app on it, to guess the word on the screen. You can say whatever, no rhyming or saying the word. It goes a little something like this...

And finally, it was time for the timeless classic, the ball drop!

A few weeks beforehand, when I was talking I had told James before that I really never had a real New Years Eve kiss at midnight. Sure, I kiss my friends' cheeks and everything, but not a real romantic one. So when the clock struck midnight, I just keep cheering (since it was what I was used to) but then, James came over to me and said "Don't you want your kiss?" and pulled me in for one. :) So cute he even remembered that.

I'm lucky to have such fun friends and a great husband by my side to ring in 2014! Here's to so many new adventures. I just can't wait!