As I blogged earlier, the wife and I were looking forward to a wild and crazy New Years Eve without our children. In fact, we decided to up the ante at the last minute: we canceled our hotel reservation in neighboring Seattle and drove down to Portland for the long weekend instead. And boy, what a wild and crazy time we had! Dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant on Friday night, Thai lunch on Saturday with my esteemed co-lead and her hubby, and an afternoon at Powell's City of Books and Moonstruck Chocolate. And then? We holed up in our hotel room, read books to one another, and rang in the New Year with the Law and Order: Criminal Intent marathon on USA! W00t! We didn't crash before midnight like some moms and dads, but we didn't last that much longer either.

See, the thing is, we realized at the last minute that all either of us wanted to do with our temporary freedom from parental duties was...nothing. We don't drink anymore, so going out to celebrate anywhere seemed less than tantalizing. (Especially since we were in Oregon, which, unlike Washington state, hasn't passed a state-wide public smoking ban). And why do two 30-something parents want to hang out with the hipster crowd anyway? More traditional New Years Eve gatherings weren't to our liking either. Sure, we could brave the rain and wind, and hang out in a crowd of rowdy drunks ringing in the New Year. Or, we could snuggle up, quote Buddhist aphorisms to each other, and watch Detective Goren put the kibosh on the scheming lawyer who tried to frame his wife for murder.

Holy crap. We are so becoming our parents.