The Rambling of a Mother's Heart: Happy New Year

Well, here we are in the new year. Welcome 2009; I pray it is a great year for all.

It started out pretty good for the Jergens family. We thought a couple months ago we would do something different for New Years Eve. We have always brought the new year in at home with the kids. We buy junk food, movies and sparkling cider and party all night long.

This year we decided to get a hotel room; we purchased loads of food..... egg rolls, pizza rolls, chips and salsa, chips and cheese, shrimp cocktail, chicken salad and crackers, chocolate chip cookies, snicker doodle cookies, Oreo cookies, Doritos, potato chips, Chex Mix, pop and sparkling apple cider.

We had reservations at the Drury Inn in Cincinnati for a two room suite with queen beds and a pull out sofa. Reservations had been confirmed and all was good... until.... Greg called new years eve day and they said there had been a slight change due to a flooding problem at the hotel. I said "What?" they said they were going to give us two rooms joined together. I was NOT happy. We had these reservations made in plenty of time to ensure us a great evening with a kitchenette in a two room suite. I called back and asked to speak to the manager..... I was soooo sweet when talking to the manager.

Hi Crystal, my name is Rachael Jergens and we have reservations tonight at your hotel. We have been told our room is not available due to flooding issues?

Yes ma'am, we are sorry for your inconvenience but we have placed you in two rooms instead of the suite. You will have more room this way.

Thank you Crystal for considering us and for giving us extra room however what we are really concerned about is the lack of a kitchen. You see, we have our whole evening planned around our snacks to bring in the new year. Can you accommodate us in any way where we would have access to a kitchen like we had planned?

Mrs. Jergens I will check to see what we have available, again I apologize for any inconveniences.

(pause)

Mrs. Jergens we have a King Suite available for you and your family if you are interested. It has a kitchen, a king bed and a queen pull out in the front room. Plus, to make up for your trouble we will cover the charges and your room will be free.

Free??

Yes ma'am.

All of it???

Yes ma'am.

OK, WOW, thank you! :)

I guess it pays to be nice. :) We walked into the hotel and sure enough..... no charge. AND we get free snacks and pop all night long AND we get a free breakfast. Unbelievable. 2009 looks like it is going to be a great year.

We watched Indiana Jones and Horton Hears a Who, played games on and off our lap tops/PSP. Nick and I played Janga and Greg cheated at Boggle. We ate junk food until we were sick and then ate some more. The New Year started to approach and we realized we didn't have a bottle opener for our sparkling apple cider; we didn't realize this until 3 1/2 minutes till the ball started to drop. It was a race to open the bottle. We are NOT good at the New Year thing. We have missed the ball dropping in the past so you would think we would have our act together....but we didn't. Greg used his keys and bent the bottle cap open with a minute 30 seconds to spare. We brought the new year in toasting our cider with lots of hugs and phone calls to loved ones.

Here are some photos of our New Years Eve:

Front room