New Year's Eve

Today was a good, long day. I started in the morning, by heading to the church to set up the Primary room. Our theme this year is "Choose the Right." We've decided to have a road-map theme where we liken life to traveling on the road. The street signs warn us and protect us from danger just like the scriptures and prophets do. The laws protect drivers from getting injured, just like the commandments protect us from spiritual dangers. We strive to make right choices that will help us follow the path that leads to Christ. 

I, with the help of my fantastic counselors, created a paper path that we will follow throughout the year in Primary. It should be fun! Here is a picture of the end of that path (If you're curious, CTR stands for Choose the Right):

We will remember New Year's Eve 2011 forever because it was the day David decided to take his first steps. He's 17 months old. I'd say it's about time. This was the best picture I could get. He was not cooperating:

To celebrate New Year's tonight, we ate shrimp and had ice cream. It was a real treat for the kids:

We did not have any fireworks of our own, but that doesn't seem to matter here in Germany because EVERYONE else has them. We enjoyed watching the entire neighborhood light up the sky. The best part, however, was watching our neighbor, Todd, light his fireworks:

The whole neighborhood came out to watch:

It was a fun night. David was asleep long before the fun began. Bailey was asleep at the beginning of the fun, but woke up for the end. And TJ was there for the beginning, but was inside asleep by the time the fireworks were done. 

After all the fireworks, Bailey and Joey joined me for a glass of Sparkling grape juice. Then we wished each other a happy new year. After our drinks, the girls insisted that they write an email to their dad wishing him a happy new year too. It was a good night: