View this post on Instagram

Mary Poppins, Audrey, Ariel, Ms. Frizzle, Cinderella, Gwen, Mr. Toad, Avril, Nancy Drew, Posh Spice, Rizzo, Frida Kahlo, Steve Irwin, Dorothy.. This new year we decided to dress up as our childhood heroes. Sending you all love and hope going into 2019 ?

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Dec 31, 2018 at 9:45pm PST

Taylor Swift used to own the Fourth of July. She threw huge Independence Day parties at her Rhode Island estate, inviting all of her friends (and acquaintances, and her boyfriends of the moment). She would rent special stuff for her parties, like giant inflatable slides. In 2016, she even seemed to privately hire a photographer to extensively document her blowout TAYMERICA party. But after 2016, Taymerica stopped happening. That was the year she really took it to the next level, and that was the year of TIDDLES. Post-Tiddles, Taylor didn’t stage-manage those huge parties anymore. She wanted to be private.

Well, as I said throughout 2018, I truly felt like the whole Private Tay was just a phase, or even more than that, a rebranding attempt. You can only tamp down those Taymerica urges for so long before they come spilling out. It looks like Taylor threw a huge costume party for New Year’s Eve. I never knew that was a thing? Are all of you attending or throwing costume parties for NYE? If not, it’s about to become a thing. Taylor invited Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Gigi Hadid and others. Taylor dressed up as Ariel from The Little Mermaid, which is just another reminder that I’m still so mad that Taylor hasn’t gone red full-time. She looks amazing as a redhead.

People Magazine pointed out that in the photo where Taylor and Ryan are swigging from their respective bottles, the liquor brand is Aviation gin, which Ryan is invested in. How does that work? Does he bring a case of gin to the party? Or does he have it delivered? And I almost horked at the idea of swigging gin straight from the bottle. I can drink whiskey, Scotch, vodka and even rum straight, depending on the quality. But gin BEGS for a mixer. Just my opinion. Even when I drank alcohol though, I rarely touched gin. I feel bad that there are going to be young Snake Fam people drinking gin straight from the bottle just to emulate Taylor.

Photos courtesy of Instagram, Backgrid.