New Year’s Eve is the anniversary of Mr. J and I meeting for the first time. He tracked me down three weeks later for a first date, and the rest is history! Thus, we make a point to mark the holiday in some way. Sometimes we eat out, sometimes we order in, perhaps watch a few movies and share a special moment and a fizzy drink at midnight. It has been, though, a little more difficult to celebrate in a big way since having children. Still, it’s one of my favorite holidays and I hope to build some traditions around it that my whole family can enjoy. Some ideas:
-make a family calendar with photos and mementos.
-create a special page in our family photo album honoring each member’s milestones or favorite moments from the past year.
-invite friends over for an early evening celebration, turning all clocks ahead several hours so that little ones can countdown the new year, too, without staying up until midnight. this seems a great activity for such a party, so is this. And you know you have bubble wrap leftover from last week!
–celebrate with the Spanish tradition of eating grapes at every chime of midnight.
Kimberly
...by day, making a home where the buffalo roam. By night, pretty much the same thing, punctuated by the occasional fantasies of sunny beaches, italian movies and sparkling lemonade.
Maybe celebrating 12 noon would be fun w/ the little ones!! (and friends)
We always ring in the new year with New York so the little ones can go to bed. Turning the clocks ahead is a great idea. I am loving the bubble wrap idea. My little guy would go crazy for it!
Technically the Spanish tradition is harder than that… you have to get all 12 grapes swallowed before the end of the last chime to get the good luck! Add in the fact that grapes in Spain are never seedless and are quite large and it's an impressive feat to get them all down in 12 chimes.