New Year's Eve

Last year was the first year I let the kids stay up.  It was really uneventful.  We watched a movie, the little guys fell asleep, I turned on the NYE programming on TV and immediately turned it off, then found Abbott and Costello and waited for midnight.  I am pretty sure I feel asleep before then.


This year, in an effort to be a fun and cool mom, I just felt we needed to do a little bit more.  Make it special, make memories, celebrate the holiday.  So, thanks to Pinterest, I got this great idea to blow up balloons, place little slips of paper in each one saying something fun for us to do, and mark them for each hour leading up to midnight.

Well, my day got busy and I never did get the notes written to put in the balloons to get at the grocery store.  But, I was not about to give up.  I wanted NYE to be fun.  To be memorable.  So, I had to make a Plan B (I should always have a Plan B.)  We had extra brown bags (and I think I saw this on Pinterest as well) and I decided to decorate the bags and put slips of paper and some props in them.  I think it was just as effective. Except for the missing balloon popping each hour.  I guess we could have tore the bags open for more affect.  I digress.

So starting at 8PM the kids each took turns opening the hourly bag.  The little guys got the earlier hours for obvious reasons.

Eight o'clock was probably my favorite one, well tied with 9 o'clock at least.  We are currently reading Swiss Family Robinson.  Boop had asked about coconuts the other day so I had bought some canned coconut milk (they drink it in the book real coconut milk, not canned ;))  I also bought a real coconut and some bananas (which I put in the brown bag.)  So, at 8PM we hammered open a coconut, ate the meat and a banana, drank coconut milk and read a little bit of the book. 

At nine we planned 10 Days in Europe.  Love, love these games.  We also have 10 Days in Africa.  They are so much fun and the kids are learning geography and they don't even know it!

Ten o'clock I had put my iPod in the brown bag and we were going to dance, dance, dance for a little while.  But, by then, the little guys were sound asleep on the couch so we opted to watch House Hunters instead.

At 11, the bag was filled with hot chocolate and popcorn, so we fixed that all up and started to watch Abbott and Costello (our new NYE tradition.)  I fell asleep but could hear the big girls laughing and laughing!

At 11:55, Little Mama woke me up and we celebrated the New Year with hugs and kiss and cookies and milk.  The girls finished watching Abbot and Costello and we all slept in the living room.

That was our memorable and fun New Year's Eve.  It is gonna' be a great year . . .