A New Year begins...

Happy 2006, everyone! What a year it's been. There has been tragedy, happiness, sadness, sorrow, pain, anger, and all that other stuff in between...but as 2006 begins, we can once again hope for better than before.

Our celebration was pretty low-key. I had gotten wings at the commissary for supper, but both Scott and I agreed they were AWFUL. We put the kids to bed at the regular time (Yay!), and we popped in the last dvd in the Winds of War collection (that we have been watching since Christmas Day!). I made a huge plate of nachos (VERY good), and we ate it all up. We later opened the great bottle of Champagne that Scott had gotten. True French Champagne...quite tasty!

Around 11:15, I started dozing. We had started to watch the War and Remembrance dvd's, but I was tired. I told Scott to wake me near to midnight. He was watching a musical show at Royal Albert Hall in London (I have a picture of that!), it was rather funny, but it was neat to watch and see Hyde Park (we walked by it - across from Royal Albert Hall)...then, we started hearing the fireworks outside.

Not just your average, every day, put on by professionals kind of fireworks. In Germany, EVERYONE sets off fireworks...right in the streets! We saw it all over the place. It was loud enough to wake Hannah, who came out and stood on a chair to watch. We had people right across the street from us setting off Roman Candles, M-40's, cherry bombs, and all sorts of neat stuff. One guy was in the street shooting off the BIG stuff...it was just all so amazing. We had a fireworks show for well over a half hour.

We called our family stateside and wished them OUR happy new year! It was neat, knowing that we'd hit midnight and they were still eating dinner! after a bit, Hannah finally went back to bed, and by the time we did, it was close to one. The fireworks continued for a long time. I'm glad we got the opportunity to experience it. I'd heard about it, but seeing it first hand is so much better. Someday, I hope to experience it again!