We celebrated the new year by joining two of our MIT families at a timeshare condo in Williamsburg, VA. We all drove down from our respective homes on Saturday, each family having its share of (mis)adventures in getting ready and getting there. (Case in point: AJ had said we were planning to meet at our folks' at 11am so that "hopefully we'll be on the road by Noon" -- but we didn't even get to the house 'til after Noon and finally got on the road at 1:30.) With the last foursome's morning plans being changed without their consent, we all eventually met up in the Williamsburg area at a CiCi's buffet for dinner (hey, they serve one of the few foods all the kids will eat unconditionally, and don't really mind the noise they generate while doing so).
The condo was basically a pair of nicely-equipped apartments laid out like a townhouse, so the kids had a grand old time while all us olders just did our thing and complained about the cold. Sunday saw another family's planned morning timing changed unilaterally by outside parties, but by lunchtime we all had our day passes and were happily chowing down in the King's Arms Taven in Colonial Williamsburg. The rest of the increasingly cold day was spent exploring some of the colonial-era businesses until the increasingly frigid temperatures drove us back to the shuttle bus. (More than one person told us it was the coldest winter recorded in Williamsburg since 1917.) We had planned to spend an hour or so at one of the museums but as soon as the bus stopped the people getting on all told us that the museum had closed early for New Year's, despite all the reassurances from the Visitor Center staff (and the iOS app) that they would not.
We did a little shopping at some of the most crowded small shops I've ever been in (especially the candy store) but had fun doing so, then made our way to a nearby Golden Corral to stuff our faces before heading back to the condo for our own new year's eve celebration. The kids all(!) fell asleep in the van by the time we got back to the townhouse, but that proved to simply be a quick recharge because at midnight they took full advantage of all the party hats & noisemakers we'd brought and were all going strong long after Ryan Seacrest & Jenny McCarthy had closed up shop.
Monday morning was marked by a neighborhood-wide power failure just as we were all getting out of bed, so we cleaned up as best we could, had a thoroughly chaotic but tasty breakfast at Mama Steve's, and spent a few hours (and more money) at the big Yankee Candle store before the group began to split up for home. Based on the southbound backups we'd seen on I-95 at the beginning of the trip, a decision was made to ignore the info on Inrix and Wayz in favor of a "faster" route, so we got back to Mom & Dad's around 10:30pm. After a quick bite and a partial unpacking, AJ dropped me at my house and was finally able to tuck her tired self and the Pipsqueak into bed close to midnight. (Both Miri and Mommy ignored the fact that today was a "regular" day and stayed home to get a little more rest.)
And that was how we closed out 2017 and began 2018. I'll have another (short) post about it with some of the 2GB of photos I took once I've had a chance to go through them on my laptop, but right now I have to go see why my refrigerator stopped running & check Wednesday's crazy weather forecast for updates again... Nope, 2018 ain't gonna be boring!
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