Air hockey, my eye! Literally!

Yes, I stayed up to midnight last night. Yes, I whooped and hollered with the best of them. No, I did not partake in the traditional exchanging of kisses. Trust me, if you saw the boys who were at the party we went to, you'd understand! We had a fantastic time with a bunch of other families. The night kind of got off to a rough start for me, though, to be honest! 

I was sitting on a couch in our hosts' garage, watching a somewhat-less-than-exciting air hockey game between two little boys (ages ten and seven) and I was unofficially keeping score and referee-ing. Suddenly, the puck went out of control and before I had time to react, went straight at my eye. Yeah, not so much fun. Stung a bit, but otherwise, I'm fine. The funny part was this.

After I got hit....

Jonah: I'm sorry, Meredith! Are you OK?

Me: Yeah, I'm fine!

At this point, I realized what this must have looked like, and actually started laughing at myself. Meanwhile, my eye's natural reaction was to start watering--a lot--so it looked like I was crying. There I was, assuring everyone I was fine, and I look like I'm crying my eyes out. We've been at the party about forty-five minutes. Yeah. That's what happens when you hang out with a bunch of boys.

Jonah: Are you sure?

Me: I'm fine--go back to your game.

Jacob (saw the whole thing): Are you OK?

Me: I said, I'm fine! Don't worry about it.

Jacob: You've got to admit that was just a little bit funny!

Meanwhile, I'm laughing my butt off at myself, looking like I'm hurt so badly there's no way I'll survive. And then I found out that I was crying off all of my painstakingly-applied-in-about-two-minutes eye makeup. On only one eye, mind you.

Yeah, that ended well...NOT!

After a less-than-ideal start, the night was soon off and rolling! Watched some more air hockey, got scolded by Mom for sitting so close to the table ("Do you want to get hit in your other eye?!? Sit further away!!!"), then ran a race with Brooke. See, we have this little game we play where I go up to her and say, "Is that the little girl who's faster than me?" And then she does the cute thing, and then we race. She always wins, then I put on a big show about how I'll beat her next time, blah blah blah. Then, we played one round of flashlight tag before realizing that it was about nine o' clock and the neighbors might not appreciate the light and noise. So we just stuck to the noise. I wandered around, listened to my iPod, watched the boys play foosball and basketball, then sat in a tree, talked to Baylee, Tori, Brenna, Summer, and all of the guys who couldn't possibly stay away from me (yeah, right---they probably wanted me out of the tree so they could climb it), listened to my iPod, and then played Long Shot with Bria. Evidently, I will be going on a trip to Europe with my best friend when I graduate high school. And, according to Bria's self-told fortune, I will be going to swing with them sometime this year. After that, it was time for some dinking around in the streets, then some firecrackers. Ours were somewhat disappointing compared to the neighbors', but even a wimpy fireworks display is awesome when you're enjoying it with friends. At midnight, we all gathered round and cheered, then we all prayed together. Then my family hightailed it outta there and we went to bed. I slept till ten thirty this morning. I know I'm a lazy bum and I don't care!

We had a turkey sitting in our fridge that we didn't end up using this Christmas, so we decided to have a late Christmas dinner today. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts...I was going to take pictures, but I was too busy chowing down! Sorry...maybe next time! After that, we sat at home, watched TV with the family, played some video games, then went out to the drive-thru at Taco Bell at ten o' clock tonight to find out that they were closed.

:(

Still, all things considered, it was a good day! We have one more day of vacation, so I have some catching up and getting ready to do before plunging full steam into ninth grade again.

 I'm so ready for you, 2012!!!!! BRING IT ON!!!!!!

2012: Challenge accepted!

(I hope not!)