A New Year's for Posterity

New Year's Eve this year will be remembered as the year we did not catch the house or surrounding woods on fire by a floating lantern.

I came outside at about this point in the launch:

"What is that?" I asked.

"A floating lantern" they said.

"A wha--? Hey! Where's that going? Oh CRAP! YOU CAN'T SEND FLAMING THINGS INTO THE SKY!!!"

New Year's Eve will also be remembered as the night a gang of children converged on Desiree like a pack of wolves and stole her specially-coated pine cones and threw them into the fire.

It's not that Dez wasn't willing to share, it was just that she got caught up in the moment and when she looked down, all the pine cones were gone:

But they really did burn "purty." Too bad she will have to wait until next year to get more.

New Year's Eve will also be remembered as the night at least 10 people witnessed me "beat boxing" and were laughing so hard no one was able to actually get it on video and post it on Facebook.