out with the old, in with the new

for new year's eve, we decided to have a tropical extravaganza - complete with festive hawaiian shirts and fruity drinks with umbrellas. we started our celebration to the blue gate restaurant, one of my faves. the family-style dining has delicious homemade favorites like fresh loaves of bread, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and even includes dessert - the fresh pies are incredible! everyone looked at us a bit askew when we sat down with our hawaiian shirts, but we had a great time. (btw, the shirts were a great goodwill find! they had way more options than i thought they would!)

(this is us at dinner)

after dinner, we headed back home for the rest of our celebration. although my littlest nephew was asleep by the time we got home, everyone else got to enjoy the extravaganza. we played pool (poorly), tripoly, and even made some chocolate fondue to snack on. the chocolate dipped snacks went perfectly with my strawberry daquiri. we counted down the last moments of the year, and spent the first few hours of 2010 enjoying family games. it was a great way to ring in a new year!

(me kicking everyone's butt at tripoly. okay, maybe i wasn't.)