Mer and I were invited to go to our friend’s house for New Year’s Eve. Our friend is the CVCA Latin teacher, and she is know affectionately as “Dubbs” (her name has several “w”s in it). Dubbs and her husband, Nate, are fun people who like games and have always had good food, so we were quite pleased to accept their invitation. Dubbs and Nate also invited the greater Ombudsman clan, so it was a festive gathering.

Nate cooked – he works for Schwans, so he had some of their food, and he added spices and sauces. There were two different kinds of meatballs, pulled pork, shrimp scampi, chips, soda, and a chocolate cake. Once again, I was the paragon of self control, and I did not eat the pans. I was especially effective with the chocolate cake, of which I consumed 1/4 all by myself (somehow I got it into my head that there were two cakes, so I did not realize I was being greedy until after I served myself). The food was all help-yourself and casual. We ate and laughed while the little Ombudsmen played with their toys and some of Dubbs’ extensive Star Wars stuff.

Nate introduced me to his X-Box 360 that he got for Christmas. He showed me a version of PacMan on steroids – the maze keeps changing as you eat things. I played it for five minutes, and I did okay. Nate then showed me a game where you navigate a marble around a maze, and I liked that quite a bit. I’m not saying I did very well at the tougher levels, but I enjoyed it.

I brought along the Wii, and so I hooked it up. It was enjoyed for much of the evening. Ombudsman and his daughter squared off in boxing and in bowling, and I’ll assume that Ombudsman let his daughter win as part of building her self-esteem (especially in bowling, Ombudsman could not get any breaks – he kept getting splits). It was entertaining watching people play the Wii – one of the reasons I like the Wii as a party game is that you can laugh at the people playing as they jump around.

Ombudsman and clan had to leave about 10:00 (the little ones were getting tired). It was fun to get to see them. Dubbs, Nate, Mer and I then broke out the board games. We played Apples to Apples, which Mer won. I think Apples to Apples is probably designed for six or more people, but it was still entertaining to play it with four – the company was merry.

We then moved on to the old stand-by, guys vs. girls in Cranium. Nate and I jumped out into a quick lead, but got bogged down on Creative Cat, where we got stuck sculpting “drawing,” and drawing “pregnant woman” and “police woman.” Dubbs and Mer came storming back, but the comeback was worth it to see Mer trying to hum The Cars’ “My Best Freind’s Girlfriend” and to see Dubbs imitating Mae West. The girls won, but it was still fun.

Somewhere in there, we decided to watch the ball drop. Dubbs does not have cable, so we watched the Times Square celebration on the Spanish channel. We did not even realize the ball had essentially dropped until they showed it on camera for the last second. Surreal, but par for the evening. We continued the game after the short interruption.

So, wild partiers that we are, we stayed at Dubbs’ and Nate’s house until after 1:00, and I did not get to bed until about 1:30. I really cannot tell you the last time I was up at 1:30 actually doing something.

Keep an eye on those Latin teachers – they are wild.