New Year's Eve; Youzeum; Chinese (people); Artisan Salsa; Ragtag; El Rancho

Wednesday, December 31st:

During the day we just hung out. We'd made plans to go to the "First Night" celebration in downtown Columbia. Ryan's parents were going to come over to baby sit, so once we got Ella tucked in, Maroua and I took the boys out to par-tay while Kris and Ryan went to hang out with some friends.

Our first stop was the Youzeum. It's a museum about body stuff. Normally, it's $10, but that night's cost was included in the "First Night" fee. It was kinda lame. There was one arts and crafts table for the kids, but that was it. The boys really liked the Rube Goldberg machine at the end and watched it for a long time.

Next we went to the Methodist Church for crafts and Chinese singing and dancing. Rami fell asleep almost instantly. Jacob would lay down only to pop back up again when he heard something interesting. By the time the presentation was over, so were the boys. We walked back outside in the freezing weather only to find that the "First Night" busses had stopped running to this area. We walked to the Artisan and got the boys milk and brownies while we warmed ourselves. It was apparently Salsa night, though our little party animals were not really interested. Maroua ran back to the Youzeum to get the car and we all piled in with the heater blowing full blast. This is when Jacob said, "I like it to be a little cold. This is a lot cold. I don't like it to be a lot cold." Back at the house, the boys were tucked in and Maroua and I went on a crazy wild goose chase trying to find Ryan and Kris (we did).


Once together, we all headed to the Ragtag Theatre. It was really loud and there was some old guy playing saxaphone along to the hip hop music. We stayed long enough for one drink then headed to go eat at El Rancho. El Rancho is not TexMex, but it is amazing food! I ate an entire platter of nachos, even when my stomach said I should have stopped at half. (I did have trouble sleeping that night because my stomach was so full...)

On the way back to the car, Kris's borrowed jacket became a problem. He had borrowed Ryan's dad's University of Missouri coat that had a big M on the back. Should not have been an issue since Columbia is where that university is located, but it was New Year's and there were a lot of drunk people around... Anyhoo, the story goes: we'e walking down the street towards the parking garage when some chick yells out, "Hey! Go Mizzou! Hey, guy with the big M on his back!" We just keep walking with nervous smiles and giggles. Then some other guy in some other circle of people says, "Hey! What are you laughing at? You got something to say?" We just hurried on our way. (Maroua, Ryan, and Kris should help me with this story. It's hard to remember everything on my own and the side discussion I'm currently having about "The Fox and the Hound" is not helping!)

Once back to the house, we all hit the sack.