Before and After 2008

MC hugging the giant pretzel.

I just blogged about our New Year's healthy resolutions and I guess this is really a wake up call for both my husband and I.

Imagine, midnight, 30th of December, I had to knock on our tenants to ask them for help, to drive my husband to the hospital. I had to push him because he's complaining of shortness of breath. Thank goodness, he was back after more than 30 minutes.

The doctor was saying it could only be stress and more reasons lie on the psychological side. He is making himself crazy over a lot of things. Well, at around 2 am, 31st of December; we were back in bed. Comforted but not totally.

And at 10 am, we drove to the cardiologist for a thorough test. It is better this way, though the kids cannot understand why we had to spent a long time at the clinic when it is supposed to be a big day that day. I tried to explain by telling them that Papa doesnt really feel well; that we must visit the doctor so we could really celebrate later that night.

Well, everything went well. Though the doctor warned my husband that he could be a candidate for high blood soon, if he doesnt take care. Thus, it is really good that we have started earlier with our healthy resolutions. And we must stick to them. Really stick to them.

After that, we did get to celebrate New Year's Eve with a bang. We got to visit oma and opa and received our good luck charms from them: a giant pretzel, clover plants, marzipan pigs, chimney sweeper figurines, and a donut. I already have the spread of circular fruits at home.

Our lucky charms.

My sister in law came with her two daughters and brought us lady bug chocos for good luck late that day. And I engaged their help in opening my husband to the idea of attending meditation or yoga classes. I know this would help him, the cardiologist recommended it to him, too. But, of course, he finds the idea laughable. Hay, I wanted to shake him :D But I wont stop from prodding him to trying them, at least, especially if it would help him.

And then we prepared our raclette, our canapes as midnight snacks, our bleigiessen kits; and ourselves for a long night. We played card games, watched tv, danced and sing with the celebrities on tv and played with the confetti and worked on our bleigissen set; as MC said, 'it's party time!'
Our raclette spread. MC's concentrating on her bleigiessen job.A few minutes before midnight, we were outside with the whole neighborhood, almost all with a glass of sekt in the hand; greeting the New Year with some fireworks. MC enjoyed the sparkles but IC wont stay for a lone time outside. She hated the noise; so I stayed with her inside and watched from the window. We called the family and wished them a Happy New Year. (I already called my family in the Philippines and sent SMS messages to some friends a few hours earlier).

First photo: MC with the sparklers while IC stays just inside the door.

Second photo: MC fully clad with confettis

At 1 am, I cleared the kitchen but left the confetti clad living room alone; made the kids ready for bed; but the kids simply wont move. It was at 2 am that they came to us to say they wanted to sleep.

That was our New Year's Eve. How about you?