What Do You Do for New Year's Eve?

We play games with the kids, eat lots of appetizers, sparking cider for kiddies, wine for parents, noise makers, confetti poppers... all kinds of fun stuff. When the ball drops we go on the porch and bang pots and pans, as Old lang syne blares from the house :)

When our kids were little, and the neighbor kids were too, someone always hosted "9:00 New Year" We'd have dinner or just snacks, the kids would play, grownups would talk.... and we'd watch the ball drop LIVE in new york. which of course is 9:00 pm... plenty late enough for a bunch of tired parents and 5 and unders.... the champagne is poured, noise makers and confetti passed out... 5,4,3,2,1, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I swear in a houseful of friends and loved ones it's no less festive than midnight. Maybe a little more so because we're not dead tired yet. Then hugs and kisses all around and back home in bed by 9:30. Sweet.

Now my kids are bigger, so we go to a friends house, watch a movie, have dinner. Then games. Last year it was "just dance" on the wii. Parents are not exempt from making fools of themselves. Then we had a marshmallow sculpting contest. The hostess provided marshmallows of all shapes and sizes. (There's quite a variety to be had around the holidays) along with pretzel sticks and dry pasta to use like tinker toys. The winning entry was my husband's ode to burning man; a giant marshmallow man, surrounded by mini marshmallow people with their little spaghetti arms in the air... then he stuck him in the candle centerpiece and we all cheered while he went up in flames....

Midnight was noisemakers, silly string, etc....

fun stuff.

We order pizza and watch a movie with our son, and then we snuggle on the couch together the rest of the night. Sometimes falling asleep before the ball drops!

throughout the years, we have done different things

before kids = we would have friends over, or go out
when kids were little = have grandma come over and watch them we wanted some free time for a quiet dinner
kids getting older = having lots of friends over and playing games and eating
now = we get family together and go bowling till 1am. The kids are teens now and love it. We have a great time.

We usually get together with our BFFs (who have kids)... we do an 'early' new year around 8pm with the kids, then shoo them off to bed.

Then we pretty much drink a little too much, sing a little to loud, dance a little too long, say HAPPY NEW YEAR after the balls drops, then go to bed ;)

last year, when my kids were 6 was the first time i allowed them to ring in the new year. we were at a rented house with a few other families up in mountains. i think one of mine barely held her own, she was on the edge for the most part. the other one did awesome. so this year we are getting together with two families, having a bonfire at 9 and then allowing kids to stay up until midnight. i think they will do fine. i wanted to do this for so long because growing up my parents always had a table set with lots of food, snacks and drinks and we just stayed watched new year shows and waited for midnight. such fond memories. i think it's time i share it with my kids now.

Sometimes we stay up and watch a movie and when it's almost time, we'll turn the channel to the ball dropping. Then we go to bed. lol Boring I know. We have two kiddos, so we need all the sleep we can get. HA! And it doesn't always work out that way. lol

for the past few years we have gone to my brother's house to play games and watch movies and eat junk (last time of the year to do that right?). we put the kids in their jammies and let them do the same. About 2 minutes til midnight we grab the pots and pans and sparklers leftover from 4th of july and line up at the door to run around like fools in the street of their culdesac at the stroke of midnight. we leave shortly after so we dont have to drive home with all the drunks.

We usually grill some steaks, watch a movie, then switch to Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve show to watch the ball drop & count down. My son will go outside & bang pots & pans to ring in the new year...then...bed.

Now that he's older (8.5) we're thinking about having friends & their son over for a little get together.

So.....yeah....boring here! LOL

We invite a couple of families over with all of their children. We have dinner together, usually along some sort of theme (last year we did fondue). We play games all night, different games going on all over. They spend the night with us, and we have breakfast together the next day. Sometimes some people stay all day, some go home after breakfast. We've had people stay until midnight the next night! We have so much fun, and we are very casual about the schedule. The kids LOVE this, and look forward to it every year. We try to mix up who comes each year so that we can build relationships with a variety of people. Very memorable. Nobody has to be out driving, and it keeps our kids very content and excited to be home with us. Hopefully this will be one of those traditions that will live on when our kids are married and have children of their own. Such fun days. BTW, my kids range in age fro 19 down to 5. We have had families with 10 children stay as well as families with no children. We usually have about 20 people this year. Last year we had 25. That's about average for us.

We have a Wii game console and we invite people to stop by for appetizers, a glass of something to drink and to play games on the Wii. It's very casual and everyone ends up having lots of fun - even those who think they won't play anything end up playing some silly game. We have the standards - bowling, etc., but we also have some fun and silly games too which really makes it fun.

Well, this will be only trhe second New Years we have had a child. Last year - we went to bed at our normal time. LAME I know, but who needs to be extra tired the enxt day when you have a little one to chase around and who does not sleep in because it's New Years Day? :) This year, we haven't decided, but may stay up because friend has mentioned hanging out with us. Will probably have some yummy appetizers cooked up and just watch the ball drop etc while playing pool, lounging in our basement. Very low key as the littl eguy will be upstairs sleeping. And I'm pregnant, so no champagne for me!