for New Years??? We will be sitting at home with the kids and a few friends. I got party hats and noise makers for the kids, they love it every year! I will put together some finger food trays and have a relaxing evening at home.

By Marcia on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 09:55 am:

Ours will be pretty much the same, minus the friends. Just the kids and us. Usually we watch a couple of movies and have munchies. Kayla, 7, doesn't make it to midnight, but the other 2 do. They love it. :o)

By Mommyathome on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 10:19 am:

Probably nothing! LOL I don't like asking anyone to babysit on holidays, so it will probably just be me, DH and the kids.

By Jackie on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 10:20 am:

Not sure what we are doing. I invited some friends over to have a quiet casual evening, not sure if they are coming over.

Kathy watch out for those party hats LOL

By Trina~moderator on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 10:23 am:

A regular night in our house. Our kids are too young (5 & 7) to stay up until midnight. DH and I have no desire to go out to celebrate. We might do something special as a family New Year's Day.

By Marg on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 11:07 am:

We don't go out on New Year's either. I can never make it until midnight, I'm usually asleep by 10-11.

By Annie2871 on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 11:09 am:

My dd is going to a Sunday School class New Year's party. DH is watching Arkansas play in the Independence Bowl on TV. And I am babysitting my 3 month old nephew so my brother and his wife can go out!

By Trisa on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 02:52 pm:

We just stay home and watch movies and rent video
games. Nothing fancy but still fun.

By Tunnia on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 03:00 pm:

We are going to our friend's house across the street. Every year they have a family get together with their family, our family and occasionally they will invite another family. There is no drinking and the kids really enjoy getting to play and stay up until midnight. Both my friend's kids and my kids are night owls and have no trouble staying up that late. We eat dinner together and play board games and last year we did karaoke which was hilarious. This will be the fifth year we have done this and we really enjoy it.

By Annie2 on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 07:22 pm:

It's usually only dh, me and the kids. We watch tv, eat munchies. At midnight the kids bang pots outside and dh usually has some fireworks put away that he lights off at midnight.
This year we are thinking about going out for an early dinner with the kids at a nice restaurant. Witht he plan to be home at a safe hour. We'll see.
New Year's Day is Rose Bowl day here!

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 01:26 am:

Go to my best friend's house, eat supper that we both help prepare, then play games and eat all night until midnight. Then whoop in the New Year with sparkling grape juice and her DH's birthday cake, since his birthday is Jan. 1st.

We have way too much fun at her house playing games. Turning into a glamour girl and going out just isn't my style!

Then, at midnight, we usually go to the living room and watch tv for a while. It seems to me last year that we didn't get home until close to 2am. The kids slept until noon!

We are looking forward to playing Cranium for the first time that night!

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 01:28 am:

Tunnia, we do the same thing! Have probably done it for 5 years now, too. I can't even remember. I just typed my response without reading the rest! It is my favorite way to do New Year's Eve!

By Bellajoe on Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 11:29 am:

Going to my brother's house. He and his wife are having friends over. We are taking the kids and will put them to bed there, that way we don't have to ask anyone to babysit that night. We'll just eat, drink, ring in the New Year and probably be at home in bed by 12:30! LOL

By Bea on Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 12:33 pm:

We and our neighbors are having a progressive dinner and party. We'll have appetizers at one house, the soup and salad at another, the entree in a third home, dessert at a fourth, and end up here to bring in the new year at 12:00. No driving, and not a whole bunch of work for anyone.

By Paulas on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 09:13 pm:

We aren't doing anything and I think my dh is a little disappointed. My friend had mentioned that she might have a get together at her place and we could bring the kids. Well, today, without wanting to come right out and ask if that was still a go I asked if they would like to come for dinner. Come to find out, they are going to a house party. DH feels they should have told I this before so we could make plans to do something else and maybe he's right but it's not like we have a whole lot of other options. We don't know anyone here despite the fact that we've lived here for 6 months now. Only 3 people work at his office and they are older and I work out of town so that doesn't help.

Any suggestions on what we can do with the family (dh, me, dd-7, ds-4)?

By Mommyathome on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 09:28 pm:

Paula, when you think of something let me know! It will be me, DH and DD5, DD4 and DS2.
The inlaws asked if we wanted to go over there, but I figured it would just be easier to stay home. That way the kids could go to bed if they feel like it. And, we won't have to go out in the freezing snow to drive back and forth. I'm a party pooper I guess LOL.
I would love to have a creative bunch of friends (that have kids!) to hang out with, but we just don't.
If you were closer...you could come on over with your DK's!! ;)

By Paulas on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 10:40 pm:

Wouldn't that be lovely Robin if our families could spend the evening together. Too bad we are so far apart.

By Tonya on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 10:42 pm:

We are going to a friends house around the corner so no driving or long rides home. We will get htere around 7pm and hopefully be home by 1am. I start getting so tired so quickly lately that 1am is shooting for the stars for me.

By Bobbie on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 10:57 pm:

LOL Tonya, Happy shooting. We will be home too. And knowing my kids they will all be out by nine. DH will be asleep on the couch and I will be watching TV and surfing the net like any other night. We aren't big on ringing in the New Year, never have been. Major home bodies. We might rent a couple of movies and make up a tray of finger foods. But nothing majorly exciting.

By Jtsmom on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 12:49 pm:

I hope I can make it until Midnight. Here lately I am asleep by 9:30pm! We will probably just watch a movie. DS will be asleep by 8:30pm. We don't give in much on his bed time. (he's only 3) And it doesn't matter what time he goes to bed, he is always up by 6am! He really needs his sleep or he is very hard to live with!!

By Yjja123 on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 01:15 pm:

Rented movie S.W.A.T that hubby wants to see.
Dinner will be steak, salad, potatoes & garlic bread. I bought hubbys favorite --pepper jack/jalepino dip and chips to snack on.
Went to Sams club and picked up fireworks to set off sometime tonight--though I doubt we will make it to midnight.
Times like this I feel OLD. I remember ringing the New Years at various parties and staying up until all hours of the night. Now if I am up until all hours of the night it is only because someone is sick. LOL

By Jbarrj2112 on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 02:50 pm:

We have a formal dinner to attend early on tomorrow, but we take baby with us everywhere that we go. We have a few different Baby Bjorns, and since my dress is black and hubby's tux is black, we will dress her up and put her in her black Baby Bjorn carrier, LOL! You know, a lot of people might get mad when someone brings a baby to a primarily-adult function, but everyone seems very excited that we will be bringing our little one, and they laughed when we confirmed our reservation with them, because they know we take her everywhere with us. She is content enough overall, that I am excited to take her. We have had her to several events like this, and she loves it, thank goodness! (Not to mention that we know no one out here that we trust enough to ever watch her). After that, we will stop and pick up some food to-go, and head home before the traffic really hits....hubby and I usually have a get-together at home with all of our friends and family, but since we are so far away from them all this year, we will just relax at home and listen to some tunes with the baby.

By Babysitbarb on Sunday, January 4, 2004 - 04:27 pm:

We tried something different this year. My SIL's family has done this for many years now. We went out of town (1 hour,20 minutes from home). Stayed in a hotel with a big group of family and friends. The hotel has a HUGE pool room with a hot tub, sauna,arcade room, mini putt putt, and they provided hats and noise makers before midnight. We had to take our own food and the room wasn't cheap but, it was fun. We didn't have to worry about the kids and they had fun.It's probably not something we would do every year but, it was fun and something different.

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, January 4, 2004 - 05:22 pm:

We had a lot of fun playing Guesstures, Thinkblot, and Cranium! Actually, after all that, my brain was pretty tired! LOL! Thinkblot is looking at an inkblot sort of picture and writing down all the things you see. If you are original, you get more points. If everyone saw the same thing, you got no points. Bonus points for picking up stuff the game people thought you should see.

I'm glad I didn't get Cranium for my kids last year. In some ways, it was hard enough this year and they are one year older. My friend Edie and I loved it, though. The 11 yo started out on her sister's team, then defected to Edie's and my team, then quit altogether. Still, I had to act like Eddie Murphy. It was a card where I could talk like the person, so I quoted the line from Shrek, "We're going to stay up late, watch videos, and in the morning, I'm making waffles."

(quote was wrong, she figured it out anyway! -- it's swapping manly stories, instead of watching videos. She even remembered that Eddie Murphy was the voice for the donkey in Shrek!)