Party like a Rock Star

I'm not sure where Britney S. spent New Year's Eve, but I am sure of this. We probably had very similar experiences.

After all, the party I attended featured live music, a few divas, the constant flashbulbs of the paparazzi, inappropriate conversations in mixed company and a bowl full of donut holes.

The tradition of spending New Year's Eve with our Peeps continued last night and it was a party for the record books. For starters, there were 19 children in attendance....and not all of them were there. Clearly our friends need to find a new hobby in '09.

Over the years we have relied on a classic board game (or an endless and mind-numbing card game) to keep us entertained until the stroke of midnight. But this year, we went in a different direction. Cool Shelly T and her hubby JT brought along the Wii game "Rock Band" and suggested we give it a try. That's when the fun commenced.

The first round featured Big Nanny on lead guitar, Medium Nanny or drums and Yours Truly on lead vocals. We rocked out to Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead of Alive" and made quite a name for ourselves. The gauntlet had been thrown.


Next up was Handiman on lead guitar, Stevie C. on drums and Big Nanny & Cool Shelly T on lead vocals. They performed "Roxanne", and by they I mean Shelly. Because Big Nanny soon realized she wasn't familiar with the song. Handiman displayed some mad rock star skillz.


I won't go into the unfortunate results of Big Nanny singing "More than a Feeling" or Oblivious Rob doing "Simple Man". Who knew watching someone being booed off a virtual stage by a virtual crowd could feel so awkward and uncomfortable?

Once that was over, we retired to the great room for a couple of rounds of "The Newlywed Game". It was the actual boxed game with dry erase cards to write on and really inappropriate and embarrassing questions, just like on TV. We learned alot about each other. Too much actually.

You could only play 4 couples at a time so we divided it into 2 rounds. I'm proud to say Handiman and I crushed the competition in our round. More importantly, we came away without the need for marital counseling. The same can not be said for many of my friends. (Kate W., if you're reading this you may want to contact Tracey. She and Keith have a few issues they need to discuss.)

Let me stop here and say that my friend Robyn became the official Peep Paparazzi last night. She, apparently got a new camera for Christmas. This was most evident because she wore it around her neck all night and was constantly snapping pictures. Of everything. At any point throughout the evening, not matter what we were doing, this was most likely our viewpoint:


Several of us had to resist the urge to go all Al*c Baldw*n on her. After all, she had gone against everything she believes in as a physically fit vegetarian when she added this selection to our buffet counter:


Yep. That's a bowl full of Dunkin Donut Holes. Added to the Paula Deen lemon blossoms and monster cookies, sausage rotel dip, jalapeno poppers, ham & biscuits and about 10 other varieties of sugar and cholesterol and you have the stuff that vegan nightmares are made of. My kind of party indeed.

Finally, we turned on the TV, called in the kids and started the countdown. When the ball dropped we exchanged a kiss with our spouse and hugs all around. And in true rock-n-roll fashion, we were all ready to hit the road by 12:10 am.

We're hardcore, I know.

Our family was all tucked into our warm beds by 12:30 am and I was hoping to continue the rockstar lifestyle by sleeping until noon. But it was not to be. I was awakened by the Ocho at 7:15 am.

Would you like to know her first words to me in 2009?

"Mommy, I'm hungry. And my bacon and eggs are not going to cook themselves."

Happy New Year. Party On.