"couldn't get much better, do you wanna dance?"

new year's eve! oh how glamorous and fun it is. erika came over about an hour before the party and we both went into my room to do our hair, make-up, get dressed in glamorous holiday attire, & spray on some new secret wonderland perfume! (a gift from our mum's) i love that the Christmas decorations are still up because Christmas lights give off the best lighting and everything, all the windows and bookshelves, is draped in beautiful garlands (or at least at my house!)

erika had bought her shimmering holiday shoes on black friday and i had bought mine that very day when my mum and i went shopping! i was so excited to wear them. and nothing says holiday party shoes like velvet bows:) 

all of our friends started to arrive and it immediately got loud with talk&laughter. the island countertop was spilling with snacks, including shrimp cocktail, and bright desserts, set upon an antique Christmas tablecloth.

we gathered round in the living room at about eleven, cranked up some vampire weekend, played apples to apples, and mafia! our friend dan narrated which was hilarious and our other friend joey did the background music...which made us all pretty much die laughing. 

one thing i absolutely had to do on this special night was take my first bite of my chocolate frog! though i went to the wonderful harry potter theme park in late october, the chocolate frog purchased at lovely honeydukes was still just as fresh. i had been waiting for a grand occasion to open it and new year's even seemed like the right night to me!

it was absolutely delicious! they have definitely succeeded in producing a delicious chocolate frog. which is as it should be since it's anticipated to be this fabulous&wonderful thing! it was exquisite, completely scrumptious and brought back blissful memories of my day at the wizarding world of harry potter. 

soon it was 5 minutes until midnight. it was so surreal and everyone was blowing on these horn things, it was so loud! and oh so much fun. my mum filled the wine glasses with sparkling grape juice, ready for a toast once midnight came round. erika&i kept telling each other how amazing the changing into midnight is...it holds a complete new year ahead of you, that we are confident will be incredible...even better than last year (because that always happens!) which is hard to imagine. 

i adore these two photos! i love how the one on the left shows us yelling the last ten seconds and then....then, oh golly it was epic....our friend joey surprised us right at midnight and ran down our living room stairs playing my dad's old trombone. it was epic and such a fantastic start to 2011!

essentially, this is one of my favourite photos of the night. it definitely captures the epicness of our friends! i love that joey is playing the trombone and erika and i are hugging like mad with those hilarious things in our mouths! and we reminded each other in the next few minutes while the excitement for the new year was still utterly present that this was the year for the end of harry potter! we can't believe it♥

um yes, as you can tell...us&our friends for sure know how to party and have a good time! after we'd blown on our little horns for about twenty minutes, my dad had shot the gun off outside with us all plugging our ears on the front porch and freezing, we came inside and had a lovely toast and then it was dance time...which would continue for about 2-3 more hours! 

we danced to everything! my brother hooked up his itouch so essentially we had an unlimited amount of music. the roots, passion pit, the bird and the bee, skrillex, some funk, and a selection of other artists, it was brilliant. we were partying hard as you can see! erika&i had a grand time dancing and collaborating moves together and grooving down.

and this...this my loves shows how happy we look when we are dancing and listening to vampire weekend! it was brilliant. vampire weekend is our favourite. 

the night was fantastic and better than ever! being surrounded by fantastic people we love definitely helped. and, again i say, we all know how to have a party! 

i hope you had a wonderful new year's eve&that this year of 2011 holds the most magical of events for you.♥

as for us, we plan to take a summer art course, perhaps travel to new york city for the deathly hallows part 2 premiere (we so, so, so, so HOPE we can go!) and meet the amazing cast, save for new cameras, we plan to go together and visit the wizarding world of harry potter at the end of the year, see vampire weekend live when they tour and last and certainly not least, the release of harry potter and the deathly hallows. the end of an era, worldwide phenomenon, and the thing we practically love most!

with lots of love as always,

-Erika&Rachel