Promoting New Years

Rob's number for promotion just missed December.  His Mom really wanted to see a promotion, but since we aren't with a regular unit, nothing was really planned.  That meant we got to do it all!  Lucky us!  Rob took care of the ceremony 

and Carolyn and I took care of the reception and the New Year's party afterwards.  You can't ask people to give up their New Year's without holding a party.  Luckily, again, most of them had plans and we only ended up with three families at our house- Perfect!!  

Everyone just orders a cake.  They have the new ones now where they can spray paint anything on them. But since I did that cake for his change of command, I have made it sort of my tradition.  

I like the flag cake and it taste oh, so much yummier than a store bought cake!

I bought all these chocolate Lindt balls with red and gold and blue wrappers- more as decoration, but also so people could enjoy one.   I forgot my son would be there.  Grandma said he only ended up with about 6 handfuls!  Robert confiscated some, I confiscated some and Grandma confiscated some, but Joseph is tricky!

New Year's was a lot of fun.  

It was also Kelly's birthday, so we did have birthday cake.  

It was picked out by her 7 year old daughter so it was pink with more pink!!  We played Oodles, dance partied it up and had lots of food.  We shouted out Happy New Year's twice- once at 10:35 pm so the families of small children could go home and put the over tired children to bed

 and again at midnight when the ball dropped.  Midnight was much more fun, because we broke out the fake champaign and the spray string!

We were so thankful that so many people took time out to come and see Rob.  The Dean family came up from Kentucky- just for 6 hours.  

Andre promoted Rob and then sic-ed his three oldest boys on him for a good wrestling match. 

I only say it was good, because I wasn't there to watch and although Rob came up sweating and with the wind completely knocked out of him, nobody died or got seriously injured!

Mike was the MC

 and Tony was the sound master (he didn't want to have to get dressed up in a uniform.)  All the families came.  Rob's councilor at school came and was impressed at all the guys that were there.  Even a few families from the ward which knew nothing about military promotions came out.  

We called our friends from Virginia who had moved out here a year before us, the day of the promotion (oops!) and they still came!  They and the other Air Force couple we invited both sang the Army song at the end (even though they told me that in good conscious they couldn't sing it!)  Wow, we felt really loved!  Dianne helped keep the food coming at the reception as well as Carolyn and Gary. 

 She also took the majority of the pictures for us. 

 Congratulations Lt. Col. Rob!