New Years Eve

I still have one more post about Christmas festivities, but I thought I jump into a New Year's Eve post.  

We started the morning at Kiddie Land.  Okay, not the real Kiddie Land in Waco, but the Yogya version of it.  Each ride costs a little less than 50 cents.  The kids had a blast!  I think their favorite was the little cars they got to drive.  Some of these pictures are from a previous visit, but it started raining that day so we couldn't stay very long.

 

This little kid thought it was chilly outside?!?!

 Just had to take these pictures of Paisley crying.

Later in the afternoon, Michael bought us some fireworks.  He though they were just firecrackers and Roman Candles.  Once we lit the firecrackers, we soon learned they were firecrackers on steroids, sending off great sparks of light.  We all had fun lighting and tossing them, even the kids!  Then it was time for the bottle rockets.  We looked for a good place on our street to set it off, away from trees and roofs.  We stepped back and Michael lit one, holding it high to the sky away from him.  BOOM!  This was not a Roman Candle.  It was a legit firework!  We were stunned as the red and green showered the night sky.  It was fun!  We headed to bed around 10:30 (our kids wake up at 5:30!!), but were startled awake at midnight.  There were SO MANY fireworks going off in this town and neighborhood.  Although fireworks are illegal in cities in the States, that is definitely not true in Indonesia!  I'm pretty sure everyone else in the entire city was awake and making noise.  Yelling, screaming, lighting firecrackers and fireworks.  We could see lights flashing outside of our bedroom window.  It sounded like there was a war going on outside our window.  It lasted for about half an hour.  I suppose I should have gotten out of bed to look, but our kids wake up at 5:30, remember?  

On New Year's Day, Michael and I got a rare evening out without kids.  We had friends in town and they volunteered to watch the little ones while we had a nice dinner.  We decided to head out on Michael's motorcycle since that would cut the commute time in half (don't worry, we both wore protective gear and helmets!)  I loved the ride!  Since we left in the afternoon, we had some time to kill before dinner. We decided to head out of town and into some more rural/village areas.  It was beautiful!  We saw some amazing fields as well as some small neighborhoods.  We made it to dinner and I had the most amazing meal I have had since I arrived here.  It was just grilled chicken with vegetables and mashed potatoes, but I loved it.  We will definitely be heading back there.  On the way home, Michael decided to take a short cut to miss some traffic.  Unfortunately, that short cut landed us right in the middle of a traffic jam heading into a carnival.  I wish I had taken pictures, but my phone was tucked into my purse and zipped up inside my motorcycle jacket.  Our little adventure got us home about 30 minutes later than planned, but it was worth it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!