New Years Eve: Family Style!

Happy New Year's Eve to all of you out there!  Are you going to do anything fun tonight?  While lots of people are going out to celebrate the beginning of a new decade, I've really enjoyed the last several years we've spent at home celebrating the night "Family Style".  Here's how we ring in the new year with our 4 boys - aged 3, 5, 7, and 9:

• THE BALL:  We make a "New Years Ball" out of a halloween pumpkin treat bucket, covered in tin foil, with a string of white christmas lights wound/taped around it.  I am sure you can imagine how ghetto-beautiful this is.  But it matters not!!!  Hang it from the ceiling fan, plug in the lights, and INSTANT AMBIENCE!  It also makes a fine disco ball for the dancing that will ensue...

• PLAY DRESS UP!  That's right - we dress up.  And not in the strict sense of the word either.  I make my hubby wear that too-tight-vest that I think makes him look like one of the "Newsies" (HOT!), I put on some crazy formal gown (I have a collection of odd vintage-wear), and the boys come out of their rooms in clothes ranging from "Date-Casual" to "Head-To-Toe-Cowboy" to "Batman".  Addie, our 3 year old, said he'll be "dressing up" as a dinosaur this year.  Cool.
  

• SNACK IT UP:  Don't skimp on the party treats - kids can smell a sad hors d'oevres table a mile away.  Bust out all the couponing treats you've been squirrelling away, and even go out and splurge on something unexpected.  Our kid buffet this year includes M&M's, Nuts, Chips, Pizza Rolls, Mozzarella Sticks, Taco Dip, and various sodas.  (Hot wings for the husband of course)

• DANCE PARTY:  We put on music and just let people do their thing.  Other time-fillers: Charades, balloon-volleyball, make-a-noisemaker craft(soda bottles and beans), board games, movies.

• MAKE SOME NOISE: When the midnight hour arrives (or, about 9 o'clock at our house) we go outside and bang pots and pans together shouting "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" to the neighborhood.  If you have nicer cookwear, you might opt for poppers, noisemakers, or those things you pull and confetti comes out!  

• GROWN-UP TIME:  Our kids still can't stay up till midnight, so my husband and I put them down (we let them "Slumber Party" together if they're still wired) and we watch an old movie after they're in bed.  Later on, when the ball drops, we'll do a clumsy but sentimental slow dance to Auld Lang Syne.  

 Well - that's how our family rings in the New Year .....  Now tell us how YOUR Family does it!

Have a Joyful & Blessed New Year!!