For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
T.S. Eliot
New Year’s Eve.
What can I say about it?
A night that everybody gets dolled up, makes reservations and pretty much hypes it up like… if it’s not the best night ever the upcoming year is going to suck for sure. You can’t hear me say that but picture me in the movie Clueless. BTW just for the record Clueless is one of the best movies… like, ever. Again, said like I was in Clueless, but it’s the truth LOL.
Ninja and I have both been servers for the majority of our adult lives so New Year’s Eve has never really been anything big to us except the big ol’ wad of cash we made that night. Sure sure we had done it up the odd New Year’s with the big galas, the intimate dinners the expensive hotel rooms yada yada yada.
It’s almost a relief to have children and pretty much know what you’re in for. Over the last few years Ninja and I have done a family New Year’s Eve with just the 3 of us and now the 4 of us. We have learned a few things over the year…
1. Have a plan
2. Don’t let the children drink rootbeer
3. Do not make them fancy dinners all they want is pizza, give them pizza. Feed yourself fancy dinner later 🙂
This year we didn’t want any of the “what do you want to dooooooooo?/What can we dooooooo?” questions so we made a game out of it, here it is…
The Maier girls countdown to 2015!
At 6:45 AM I heard HoneyBear come into our bedroom.
Out!
But…
Out!
Thump stomp stomp stomp stomp down the hall and then I hear in a semi quiet voice “SydneBean SydneyBean go Hey daddy… go…. Daddy… louder go Daaaaddddyyyyy.
HBear!!!!
At exactly 8 AM Ninja got out of bed went into the girls room, where they were by this time nicely playing together, and took them out and started explaining the days rules. Each hour they could open up one of the bags on the table resembling the clock at 8 AM, 9 AM, 10 AM, and so on until “midnight”
The night before Ninja and I had sat up planning the day and making easy little rhymes as hints for each hourly activity.
They were pretty excited for the little bit of whip cream first thing in the morning let me tell you!
We figured giving them an hour to get dressed up in whatever they wanted and sing and dance in the living room at the top of their lungs without hearing me say once, keep it down LOL would be something that they would really enjoy lol.
We’ve gone to the community center on New Year’s Eve a few times. It’s a great way to kill an hour or two while having lots of fun too. Plus it’s awesome for SBean’s nap; which means HBear will get some good Mommy and Daddy time on her own.
We figured that we would always be running behind the hour but by the time we got out of the pool it was almost noon and the kids were starving so we switched 11 and 12. HBear was okay with a little change as long as she was able to hold onto both bags lol
We treated the girls to McDonald’s as SBean loves the grilled cheese and HBear loves french fries. We don’t normally go in but it is been pretty chilly here and the kids haven’t had a play at the park and I’ll quite a while and they been dying to climb something LOL so we took them into Playland. I have to say is nothing like how it was when I grew up!! For one it is dirty! It is absolutely disgusting in there! I cringed every time the girls touched anything. LOL but they played for a bit and they did not cry like the other children when we left and I didn’t have to do any dishes 🙂
Daddy helped with the chocolate chip cookies.
And we also made sugar free Jell-O because HBear was very interested in the Holly Jolly jelly shots that I made the other day that I wouldn’t let her try lol. We tried Jell-O when she was very young and she did not like it but the other day when we went out for dinner they gave it to her for her dessert and she loved it! So making it at home together was something new for us.
When we got home SBean went down for her nap and HBear and I got to do some New Years Eve crafting while Ninja prepared our late night dinner for two 🙂
We made shakers and wishing wands. We made the shakers with two small paper plates left over from HBear’s birthday party and a half a bag of dried pinto beans I had in the pantry. We made the wishing wands with “Sarama wrap” as HBear calls it 🙂 and glitter.
At this point the junior game had started on TV and we were PVRing it so I took the girls into our room with some popcorn and we watched the new animated Legends of Oz: Dorothy Returns…. and Dad and Ninja watched the hockey game 🙂
I played with SBean in their bedroom while Ninja sat with HBear and wrote out her year in review.
So Ninja went and got a ham and pineapple pizza from Little Caesars and took the girls to go pick it up. They thought the place smelled so delicious LOL
For dessert I split a banana open and we stuffed it with mini chocolate chips and mini marshmallows then I wrapped it in foil and baked it for about 5-10 minutes at 400. Topped it with a little bit of chocolate sauce and let them go 🙂
Neither one of them ate it but they sure like to play in it or at least SBean did HBear will not get dirty even for chocolate LOL
Instead of doing baths and having the “routine” which they would struggle with at this point LOL we decided this was a better option. Why turn a fun day into “hurry ups, no don’t touch that, let me get those tangles/braids out”? Keep it simple 🙂
A little cup of Jell-O and a half a cookie and the girls thought they were in Wonderland having delicious treats so late at night. SBean ate her snack up quickly while peering out from the side of her eye… waiting for me to TRY and take it away from her LOL!!
HBear got a ton of awesome games for Christmas and her birthday this year. She loves boardgames, we all love boardgames, I’m saying it right now. We are going to play more family boardgames! It’s always such a fun time! So fun I forgot to even take a picture LOL but I did take a picture of my family while I set up the game that HBear chose… The Game of Life! It’s funny you get to choose your life path right off the hop, do you go on a career path or do you go to college route? One gets paid faster and other one gets paid more. Ninja and I both chose college and HBear chose career go figure LOL
At this point it was getting close to 9 o’clock which is the earliest countdown on TV that we could find. We don’t have Netflix 🙂
The girls danced to Let It Go and All About the Base ad Shake it Off and all their other favorite songs!
Once the girls were down at 9:30 then Ninja and I made dinner and sat down to watch the Oilers vs. Flames game. It ended disappointingly but at least we had a nice bottle of wine (Ex Nihilo) to drown our sorrows lol and it ended right in time for us to watch Taylor Swift and the countdown.
I highly suggest personalizing this game to suit your needs but keeping to the game plan.
FIRST: Make a plan!!! Keep it simple, little things can make their day. Try whip cream on French Toast!!! LOL
SECOND: For Christ sake do not give the kids rootbeer!!!! Remember what happens when you give the cute little Mogwai snacks after midnight??? Yeah, ROOTBEER!
THIRD: Please do something nice for yourselves!! Sit together, eat, drink, and enjoy what you like doing… together, without kids… you can do it!! 🙂
Happy New Year’s everyone!
May your year be filled with laughter, full of good health and spilling over the brim with happiness!
My cup, it runneth over, I’ll never get my fill
The boats in the harbour slip from their chains
Head for new horizons, let’s do the same
The Stone Roses
0 thoughts on “New Year’s Eve FUN!”
i enjoyed reading this post and thought it was really cute
I'm really glad you stopped by 🙂 Have a wonderful 2015!
I love this!!! What a wonderful way to celebrate the new year with your lovely family. Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop. Watch for your feature on Monday xo