What Are Your New Years Eve/new Years Day Traditions?

Well, apparently my daughter (12) has just started a tradition with her friends. It's 52 degrees here at the moment. And I suppose you could say she's joined the Polar Bear club... ? She jumped in the (unheated) swimming pool and swam across to the other side before getting out.

What am I doing to celebrate? Husband and I had a glass of sparkling wine after dinner and he went to bed (has to get up around 4:30 for work) and I have been online and am going to read shortly until I am tired enough for sleep. Son went to bed early-ish (9:15pm) b/c he will be going to wrestling practice in the morning.

Happy New Year.

This year we had lunch at our house with my mom, nothing big, corned beef brisket, black eyes and cabbage :) then tonight I had everybody's favorite snack food, we had sparkling grape juice for our kids, champagne for us, we toasted, played games, ate, shot off fireworks and had lots of laughs. My kiddos made it till 11, i just tucked their dreamy selves in bed and now I am doodling about to ring in the new year with my man :) I think we'll watch some TV, toast at midnight and then call it a night! Happy New Year!!

By the time New Years rolls around, I'm tired from the holidays =) Honestly, this year has been just perfect. We went for dinner with our family, came home and relaxed, and the kids went to bed. I realize, that as the kids get older, it will get a bit more "exciting." But, for now, I like the mellowness of our evening.

Maybe try renting a special movie? Break out the apple cider and some champagne. Bake M & M cookies and place them on top of a plastic champagne glass with milk in it.

Keep it simple. The kids will be older in time and it will get busier and more demanding =)

New Years Eve we cook a special seafood dinner. We had lobster tails, crab legs, sole fillets, and shrimp and asparagus risotto. Sometimes we go downtown for the fireworks, but it is minus 50 degrees tonight so we will have a quiet evening at home. New Years Day we go to the Levy at our Legislative Buildings. We get to shake hands with the Lt. Governor and the Premier and there will be choirs, Chinese dragon dancers, horse drawn sleigh rides, and a reception with fruit cake, cookies, punch and apple cider. I will make a roast beef for dinner after the Levy.

We just do something really small. We make hot cocoa, I make mini noise makers for them to have, and we make a time capsule of our favorite memories of that year.

We pray the New Year in. It's a tradition for black American folk since slavery.

It's called Watch Service. Some actually go to church and start in with deep prayers about 11:45 to 12:01. I do the same but at home. In my hey days, I'd dance the New Year in and kiss whoever I was with, then make my way into the toilet to send up a prayer.

It is our anniversary! When we got married 25 yrs ago, everyone said we'd always have a big party night. As it turned out, we have always had a date night weekly and still do so NYE is not a big party night for us. We enjoy it as a family.

Our routine is a family dinner at a high end restaurant with our daughter and then home for some bubbly. As daughter got older, sometimes she had friends to join us for a party at our home. Now that she is on her own, she had dinner with us and then had a celebration with her friends starting her own traditions.

On New Years Day, I cook.. I LOVE to cook. Today I am making prime tenderloin, TX caviar (a black eyed pea salad), another black eyed pea dish, mashed potatoes, and demi glace sauce. We typically have prime tenderloin or prime rib on New Years. I also have green onion dip, fresh fruits and veggies and a corn dip with fritos, as well as a few appetizers we just enjoy.

I also made ahead per daughter's request a batch of my homemade marinara sauce so she has a stock for her freezer and a batch of my homemade chili for her as well.

Happy New Year!

Hi, Mama:

I think one of the ways is to remember our National Anthem. We fought for our Independence from the British Crown. The fireworks remind me and others of the "bombs bursting in air."

American families need to be teaching their children our Bill of Rights, our Consitution, and our Declaration of Independence instead of materialism, self-interest, and lack of common decency.

Another idea is to bake some goodies for your local firemen and policemen for the hard work they have done for the community all year long.

Another idea is to get involved with your local civic league since it is the self-governing community of your city.

Happy New Year.
D.

We shared a Bottle of Proseco, and at Midnight Fireworks were set off all over the neighborhood.

If my husband had not hurt his ankle, we go to a city celebration downtown, It is a family event. With activities for families. Lots of performers with unusual talents.. And then Fireworks.

Instead we stayed at home and watched movies.

Tomorrow we will make a huge pot of Black eyed peas with the Ham bone from Christmas.. Black eyed peas are supposed to bring good luck for the New Year.,.,

When our kids were really young we had my mom come and sit on new years if we went out. As they got a little older we had the tradition of going out to dinner and then a movie with the kids. kids had to take turns picking the restaurant so sometimes it was taco bell and sometimes a steak house. depending on the age of the picker lol. but the movie always had to be a family appropriate movie. one year we saw toy story, one year prince of egypt, one year mib and one year it was cast a way with tom hanks. my kids really looked forward to this each year.

tonight we stayed in. hubby shattered his wrist in september and had a big surgery to fuse the bones together. he has not worked since september and doesn't really even like to go out of the house. I worked and didn't get home til 6. we ate cheese and chicken wings and veggies w/dip. nothing special. tomorrow I am making a big breakfast and then a lasagna later in the day. hoping to get the tree took down