Welcoming in 2013 with a BANG!

Last night I had envisioned a quiet little night at home playing games and sipping on sparkling cider while some New Years countdown show played in the background.

Instead our New Years went like this...

6 adults.

7 kids; 5 boys, 2 girls and 1 little Hunter dog.

A whole ton of fireworks.

  

Good company and a fire pit to keep warm around.

Saying goodbye to 2012 and hello to 2013...

Sparklers, pop its and a much anticipated show at midnight.

A delayed countdown.

A quick kiss.

Then ONE bad firework that blew out of it's tube...

A hit to my stomach that resulted in me using a 4 letter word (something I honestly never do!) and leaving me black and blue with Clint arguing with me that we should make a trip to the er.  I refused.

A shattered back window to our neighbors car.

A small garage fire that would have burnt the whole house down had it gone unnoticed for another 2 minutes.

A friend running the kids across the street while the men ran into the garage to put out the flames and I ran into the house to save the dog.  Dumb I know!

And a husband who couldn't sleep and woke me up nearly every hour to make sure I was okay.

IT WAS A NEW YEARS CELEBRATION WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

With everything that didn't go right about the night, I'm counting our blessings and declaring that this is going to be a very lucky year for us.  Lillie who is almost always on my lap or right in front of me just happened to be standing to my side last night.  Had she not been, whatever hit me would have hit her right in the face and it would have been devastating.  I can handle a sore, slightly swelled black and blue belly.  I couldn't have handled what would have happened if my sweet girl had been hit.  I'm thankful that nobody else was hurt and that the fire in the garage was caught just as it had started to melt through the lid of a bucket of oil and was only a few inches from a full propane tank we had just pulled from the motor home.  Today as we clean all of the fire extinguisher dust up, I'm thankful that we had one available and ready to use when we needed it.  I am thankful that God was watching over us and turned a situation that could have been disastrous into a story that we will probably be laughing about by the time summer comes.

So while I was a little sad to say goodbye to what was an uneventful, relaxing year in 2012... I have no doubt that 2013 will be exactly the opposite.  With lots of new adventures and changes we're heading into this year, I'm praying that God will continue to guide our path and leave us looking back at the end of 2013 as a year that was truly a blast!   

Here are the last two photos that were take in 2012.  When we all still thought fireworks were cool!