From the Headlee Couch: Happy New Year!!!

Tom and I have no memories from New Years last year. We were approaching Ava's MRI and are thinking that is one of the main reasons why. This year felt much different. With surgery and many tests behind us we were happy to celebrate the end to 2011 and excited to celebrate the coming of a new year. It seems odd that a particular night such as New Years Eve can bring a feeling of hope and excitement for what is to come. It cannot change the past but there is always hope that a new year can bring happiness for our family and friends. This year the Headlee's celebrated with a bang!! We put Ava down at 8 and changed the girls bedtime to 9pm. This extra hour was SO EXCITING to them. We didn't want to spoil it by telling them they stay up that late almost every night, reading and falling asleep :). At 8 pm we got out the cookies, drinks (juice for Kiara and Mckenna, beer for Deborah, and Captain and Diet Coke for Tom) and had game night. At 5 to nine we got out our hats, noise makers, and blower things and got ready to count down. We counted down and at the stroke of 9 made more noise than I thought possible for the 4 of us. When it was over, Kiara said "that was SO FUN, can we do it again?" Of course!!! We knew that Ben would have liked that as well. After two countdowns, we had dance party and took some pictures.