Happy New Year, everyone!

I type this sitting in our room at the Country Inn and Suites in Gurnee, Illinois. Last night was the LAFF New Year’s Eve Party and it went off flawlessly, I think. Linnaeus will have the final numbers, but I believe that we exceeded last year’s attendance, though not by too much.

Yesterday, Paul and I drove out to the MFF storage locker to borrow the large coolers for the party. We scored and excellent price on plastic champagne glasses at Schweppe’s Restaurant Supply, then picked up some important supplies at Sam’s Wine and Spirits. Afterwards, we headed home, where takaza was waiting. Siriuswolfstar showed up and he and Paul took Dan’s Element for more shopping for supplies while we took my Element and picked up lisagems, then headed up to Gurnee. Once we secured our room, we started setting up the meeting rooms we would be using. Dan did an amazing job of getting the food set up and ready for the incoming masses, and once that was done we chatted a bit, since we were actually ready for people by about 5:15 PM but we weren’t slated to start until 7. The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur, but I can say that people seemed to have a good time, many games of Lupus in Tabula were played, as well as quite an arrangement of video games and movies. I can also say that cosmopolitans made with apple-cranberry juice and spiked with Apfelkorn are just plain dangerous. At midnight everyone toasted the new year with sparkling grape juice, and I got my eighth (!) annual New Year’s kiss from my dear husband. Afterwards, I snuck back to roho and genet‘s with a couple of folks and we toasted the new year with tasty cider and champagne and munched on pizza pockets (“The official snack food of five year olds and drug addicts!”). A little after 2 AM, I went down and helped with the tail end of the cleanup and we did a reasonable job of restoring the rooms to their original state (less some mopping and vacuuming), then Dan and I went to bed.

Everyone is slow to get going this morning (gosh, I wonder why?). I didn’t sleep too well, unfortunately, and woke up at 9 AM. I’ve been puttering around ever since, but I haven’t seen too many people awake. Once we get rolling, I’m hoping well his Las Vegas Restaurant for brunch, then we’re off to Dan’s mom’s place to give her the Gift of Tivo 🙂

So here’s to 2005! It was a rocky year, but we survived. May 2006 be a better, happier year for everyone!