The Eve of a New Year

Three words that sum up New Year's Eve 2011?  Never. Drinking. Again...

I used to have a fairly high tolerance when it came to drinking and partying...that is until I went and got myself knocked up. To be fair, I haven't drank like a rockstar in over nine months {rockstar = shots, mixing types of alcohol, drinking all night long} and I probably should've eased back into it before going all out on New Year's Eve. But I didn't...

Due to my job, I haven't had a New Year's Eve off in 8 years...and I was ok with that since it always seemed like amateur hour. However, our careful planning in conceiving our little guy in February meant that I got all of the holidays off, which was pretty awesome. Our group decided to plan a fun, somewhat low key night out. I knew I didn't want to get VIP service at some club or have to pay an extremely high cover charge only to then have to wait in a very long line, so we got a private room at Kona Grill for dinner and  then planned to head to Shevy's for the rest of the night.

On Saturday, Grandma Carol came by around 2pm to begin her night with Cruz. This was the first time we truly had a sitter, let alone left him for an entire night and I was dreading it....not the fact of him spending time with Grandma, but not being with him for a full 24 hours. I will admit when Nick & I left, I shed a few tears. It's hard leaving that adorable baby face, but I knew it would be good for us to have a night out together, without baby, before heading back to work. We did a little shopping and then found a sports bar to watch the Creighton basketball game and have some apps and beers {my first Corona Light in forever...it was delish}. Then we checked into our hotel, got ready for the night and met our group at Kona. Dinner was good, but it was slooow and everyone seemed to get restless. Once the tabs came we couldn't wait to get out of there, but not before Nick & I snuck over to Johnny's for an espresso shot to wake us up!

Out at Shevy's, Jer & Sirvan had the back room reserved for our group and we had a blast! They had karaoke, a DJ and lots of drinks. For me, it was nice being back in this atmosphere with all of our friends and having a {relatively} flatter belly. At midnight, we popped the bottle of Cristal that Nick & I had received as a wedding present and welcomed 2012.  {Let's be honest, its not like we were going to sit around our house cheers'ing each other, so we figured it would be great to drink it while ringing in the new year.}

The ladies of the night....

...and our men.

Soon to be SIL, Brittany & I {still looking semi-alert}

Cheers to 2012

Brittany, Morgan, Janice & I

After the bars closed, Nick & I headed back to our hotel room to try and get a good night's rest...and it was almost successful, until we woke up and I had the hangover from hell. Seriously, I have never felt so terrible in my life. My head was spinning, I was dry heaving, I couldn't stand up straight. {What, you're saying I can't just go 9 months without drinking and then jump right back into my old ways?!?}This lasted until 11:30pm {yes, PM!} Sunday night after a long day of napping and watching my baby from afar. Never again. Now I understand why my sister doesn't indulge very often, the after effects are definitely not worth it. Fortunately, Cruzer was very understanding and was in the lounging mood as well.

Happy 2012 everyone....I will forever celebrate the coming years where I belong {at work & minus the cocktails}!