As 2008 comes to a close, my daughter is baking bug shaped cupcakes, two boys are playing Indiana Jones on the Wii, and the littlest one is begging sister to let him help!  As soon as I am done typing, I am going to start cooking for our annual appetizer feast!  Starting with boiling the eggs for devilled eggs.  I am also making steaks, slow cooked mushrooms, chocolate covered pretzel rods (decorated with jimmies they are "firecracker" rods to usher in the New Year!), and veggies and dip.  We ALWAYS have hats and noisemakers, too.  Later, we'll probably also get out the chocolate fountain for dipping!  Then we play games and listen to music until almost midnight.  When the youngest starts to look really tired, we get the noisemakers out and take the last photo of the year!  Then, the little one is free to go to sleep!  My kids have to see the ball drop even though they are still pretty young (but we only let them watch the last minute or so of the year since the show has some pretty questionable material in it).  Then we make lots of noise and go to bed!   

Usually we play all the board games we got for Christmas but this year we got mainly Wii games!  So we might actually play some of these!  (I expecially like Cranium's family game for the Wii Kambooki and also Wii sport).  Some favorite games are Pig Pile, Racko, Mancala, Chess, Blokus, Scrabble, Yahtzee......  I could go on and on!  We love games!

Tomorrow, we will talk about our resolutions/goals as a family and share what our goals are as individuals.  We try to focus our individual goals on character building.  Then, we all agree to encourage each other to reach our goals as best we can! 

So what do you do to celebrate the New Year????  Do you celebrate with your kids or do you and your husband go out?  Do you have company?  Or is it just your family?  How do you make the day special?

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Posted by necrone

This year we purchased a "2009" pinata, party poppers, and sparklers and let the kids have at it! They had so much fun and are now sleeping, with my husband and I not far behind LOL.

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Posted by Raesfamily

We have a pretty quiet New Years celebration. My in-laws and my sister-in-law come over to our home. We do all sorts of hors d'oeuvers (oh, I hope I spelled that correctly), play games, and sometimes watch a movie. Last night I wrote all of our different food items onto our big chalkboard in the kitchen. It looked so neat! LOL...now you know that we school in the kitchen.

We played a couple of games, including the 2nd edition of Disney Scene It. It was fun. I especially enjoyed watching clips from movies that I loved as a child.

Great question!

Thanks also for your comment on my blog. I truly appreciate it. I've added you as a friend. I've enjoyed the time I've spent reading your blog this morning.

Blessings,

Rachel

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Posted by Anonymous

Hello, I wanted to let you know that my mother found the nativity cross you were asking about at Family Christian Stores. Thank you for commenting and entering my contest! :)

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Posted by Anonymous

I'm sorry, I somehow posted the above comment as "Anonymous." I hope you can figure out who it's from now! Also, I would like to add you as a friend if you don't mind.

Blessings,
Nicole

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Posted by necrone

Last time, I promise! The computer was showing that I was logged in but I really was not..

Nicole
www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolec

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Posted by DT family

It sounds like you have some fun New Year traditions. We gathered up the kids and the dogs and headed to my mom and dad's house, where even my grandma helped us ring in the New Year. We had a on of food to eat throughout the night and played games to help keep awake. Our son got the I Spy memory game this year for Christmas, so we used the cards for charades. They have some interesting combinations on those cards. Have you ever acted out an elephant with a rubber band on its trunk or even a clown with a nail? We were impressed that everyone was awake this year as the clock struck midnight. By that point we had greeted everyone on the east coast and were ready to clink our glasses together to toast the New Year here in WI. This was the first year that our five year old made it to that hour, which was pretty exciting. -N

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Posted by Anonymous

(I don't have a Blogger account yet, only Wordpress...so I don't know how to sign this comment correctly. It's Jacqueline from TM's!) Anyway, thanks for visiting my blog!
I love your blog. I know I tried to post a comment on yours previously, but got confused about the sign in last time and don't know if my comment went through. But here I am trying it again!
Your New Year's Eve sounds really special! Honestly, since having children I value my sleep oh so much and have not stayed awake to ring in the New Year very often. My church has a very special evening of skiing and a gathering with appetizers and fellowship. I tried to go there two years in a row (wait for them to get back from skiing at the church and join the fellowship while my children sleep in the church's mother's room). But both years my kiddos got sick and we ended up driving home without me having any peaceful fellowship. I think it was really God's way of saying that I should be happy with where I am in my life as a mother and do what is best for them...not to try to go out and please myself when it was not in the best interest of them.This year my husband was in Australia for a youth church trip and a friend asked if we would come over. It was the best New Year's Eve I've ever had! Although I am so happy my husband was able to bless the church youth by going, I do feel bad that we had such a great time without him! There were about 50 people there. All the kiddos ran around playing dress up or Wii, while the adults just enjoyed each others' company. It was such an awesome night! Thanks for letting me share our special night with you!
I look forward to sharing future blog posts with each other! (Thank you for reminding me which book is the important one to focus on! I need that reminder every once in a while!)

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