Lights on the River and New Year’s Eve

Even though it’s now 2010 (I’m still working on my resolutions blog post!), I’m still holding on to Christmas.  We used to be adamant about taking down our tree on January 1st, but we’ve gotten kind of lax in recent years.  We’ve always heard it’s bad luck to turn your Christmas tree lights on after the new year, so we found a loophole: we just leave them on during the night on New Year’s Eve.    I know, technically we’re breaking the rules, but rules were made to be broken, right?  We’ll probably start taking it down tonight anyway, but I’m going to be kicking and screaming and watching Christmas movies the whole time we do.

Last night, we went to Saluda Shoals Park to see the Holiday Lights on the River – it was our very last chance!  It wasn’t too busy at first, but everyone must’ve realized they needed to seize their last opportunity…it was bustling during our 2nd pass through the park!

 

I’ll give y’all a few snippets of what we saw on our 2nd annual visit.  The entire display was HUMONGOUS, and if anyone reading lives in SC and hasn’t seen it, I highly recommend you go next year!  There are different themed areas in each little section of the park.  There were lots of nature-themed lights…

…and lake-themed lights (with Lake Murray-specific icons) …

…and sports-themed lights…

…and patriotic displays…

…and whimsical displays…

 

They use a radio station to broadcast Christmas music and messages about the park as you drive through, and toward the end of the displays there’s a “dancing forest” of little Christmas trees that blink to the music – very cool!  This year they lit up the main office and made it dance along, too!  I took videos because I’m a huge dweeb, but I’ll spare y’all.

One of my favorite section of lights is the 12 days of Christmas, a feature I will spare you guys, as well.  Before we left the house, Mom and I each packed up a mug of hot chocolate and a peppermint bark cookie bar for our journey.

When we were done (we went through twice!), we ran by the grocery store to get stuff for our New Year’s Eve dinner. 

A very un-classy, informal spread of cheese + crackers, crudites + light ranch, a crabcake each, and shrimp + cocktail sauce and horseradish.  I was stuffed to the gills after this, and we didn’t even eat all of it!  Once we relaxed for a little while, we played some Wii Fit Plus, and I’m proud to say I did not toss my crabby patties on the balance board.  We stopped at about 11:30pm to watch Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve like we do every year.  It breaks my heart to see him post-stroke, but I’m glad it didn’t get the best of him!  At midnight, we toasted the new year with Korbel (don’t mind the tools – this was taken in the kitchen currently under construction)…

…blasted effing Korbel.  I had been feeling queasy earlier in the day anyway, thanks mostly to my diet of sugar and crap, so drinking cheap champagne on top of all that was probably the worst thing I could’ve done.  I drank a couple glasses before it caught up to me and rendered me horizontal on the couch for awhile.  I still did not toss my crabby patties, though. 

After I poured our first glasses, I learned a valuable lesson. I shoved one of those wine stoppers in the bottle that have the lever on the top that you push down to make the bottle airtight…I don’t know what they’re called.  Well, I should’ve realized when it didn’t fit properly at first that I shouldn’t have used it.  Though stubborn ass that I am, I shoved it in and plunged it closed.  When it came time for our next glass, I pulled up the lever and tried to wiggle the stopper out.  ‘Twas stuck.  I wiggled harder.  Then I yanked.  Then a fountain of bubbly spewed forth from the bottle and all over my clothes and the floor.  I had a good laugh toweling it all up, though!  I joked that I smelled like a prom night limo…I put on some of my new Calvin Klein Euphoria earlier in the day, so I smelled like perfume and cheap champagne as I rang in 2010.  The lesson I learned is that champagne is a volatile force that should be respected.  If it doesn’t want to be stoppered, that means you should drink it all in one sitting. 

How did you ring in 2010?  Did you kiss anyone at midnight?  My kisses were reserved for my cat.