Post-Christmas Birthdays and NYE Celebrations in 2016-2017

We generally take the week off between Christmas and the New Year, and it is always a time filled with lots of visitors. In 2016, we managed to see almost all of my high school friends' families at different times, and most gathered together the day after Christmas at our house. My brother also stayed with us for a few days and enjoyed hanging out with our family. 

Ray, Fletcher, Julian, Moira, Cecilia, Ruby, Gus, Hannah, Maxwell, Stella


On December 30th, we had a joint celebration of my mom's 75th birthday and Sarah Luken's birthday too. Both of them were born on December 30th. Kate made a beautiful cake (of course), and we had a lovely time together. 



And on December 31st we celebrated the twins' first birthday! It was a New Year's Eve theme party with the countdown happening at noon instead of midnight. We had a great time together! 



In 2017, on Christmas day, the entire Arizona contingent of the Luken family surprised me on my 40th birthday by arriving on our doorstep and hiding in our family room until we returned from Benihana! They stayed at our house for a few days and had great fun catching up with their cousins whether celebrating a belated Christmas or playing cards at Grandma's house, bouncing on trampolines at Incrediplex, shopping at the Claire's, or watching Coco together. We were only interested in indoor activities as the weather was super cold, sub zero temperatures for the entirety of the Luken family visit!








Clare

Moira

Hannah
 We also had fun looking after the twins one afternoon while Kate was working. The girls still love going to the Children's Museum, and they are now excellent helpers to their little cousins.








On Friday night, my sister threw me a fantastic 40th birthday party at the IndyFringe theater, a place where I now serve as a board member. It's a fantastic spot right off of Mass Ave and felt like just the right place for friends and family to gather. Kate put together great drinks, food from Qdoba, a fun kids table complete with cookie decorations and photo booth props. Also, I asked for everyone to write me a Haiku, which I love. 

Lauren, Sarah, and Kate said some incredibly nice things about me, Angie gave me some crazy blue suede platform boots to rock at some point in the future, and we had a great night. I was especially impressed that so many of my friends made the journey because the weather was absolutely terrible (of course)! Afterwards, we went out to a few spots I love on Mass Ave. and met up with a few more friends. It was a fantastic way to bring in my 40th year. 















Last but not least, just two days later we celebrated the twins' 2nd birthday with a Noah's Ark theme, and then we brought in 2018 by attending a ComedySportz show at the Atheneum with the Hamilton-Lowe family. It was a great way to finish 2017 and bring in the New Year1










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