New Year’s Eve

Each year we have a party at our house, just us because we really can’t fit much more than us anyway, and it is fun.  I started doing New Year’s Parties at home years ago and they have stuck.  In fact, Haley made sure in a church meeting NOT to schedule the youth’s New Year’s Eve party on the actual evening but instead they did it the Tuesday before!  She said she didn’t want to miss her family’s party!!! How do you like that?

We always have lots of fun food to pick at instead of actually eating dinner.  We had Rick’s famous meatballs, a vegetable tray with the necessary black olives and even some vegi dip.  We had loads of different types of crackers with cheese and a holiday cheese ball.  We had hot pecan dip for the crackers as well.  At someone’s request we had a bag of cheese puffs, chips and salsa and we had shrimp with cocktail sauce; a rare treat.  We also had a berry bowl and of course the evening wouldn’t be complete without the homemade egg nog or “NOG” as we affectionately refer to it.  I once had store bought egg nog more than 25 years ago and I still remember it.  I will never ever ever buy egg nog.  Not ever! 

Here is my holiday cheese ball with a tiny gingerbread house on top.  Haley and Kaitlyn got together in the afternoon and made some party mix also.  Kaitlyn would not pose for her picture. 

Rick and I loved the hot pecan dip.  Nathan preferred Old English on his crackers. 

Happy kids excited for a fun evening.

The table was full of food so I told the kids they could wander.  I quickly decided we needed a table for at least one if not more wanderers.  So they all decided to hang out together at the “little table”.

Kaitlyn went through three pairs of pajamas before the evening was over between using her pj’s as a napkin and spilling drinks down her front. 

Eventually we moved the little table to the living room to serve as a coffee table where we could play games.  I put the little guy to bed.  You cannot play games with him around.  Not yet at least.

The girls began demolishing the gingerbread houses and were soon joined by others.  Tristan got “help” setting up for a game.

“COOTIES”!  Kaitlyn ended up liking this so much that later she just started creating different cooties all on her own and it kept her busy for a long while.  Lindsay had been hoping to play “Horse-opoly” but was voted down for more active and shorter games.

We had a great time just being together.

Our Spooky celebrated his first New Year in our warm comfortable home and he seems to love being here.  A nap is second favorite way to celebrate and he’s got some crazy positions for sleep.  Eating would be his first favorite way to spend a celebration.  He’s been making up for lost time and I can no longer feel his bony little body after seven weeks of caring for him.

I made a Yule Log for dessert this year.  I’ve had my eye on this recipe for a couple of years and finally tried it.  I had no trouble with the cake coming out of the pan or with rolling it despite not having any wax paper.  I figured the worst thing that could happen would be that I make it into trifle.  The cake was very springy to the touch and easy to work with.  Tasty too, I might add but I don’t want to know how many calories it has.  I made a chocolate buttercream filling, rolled it and drizzled chocolate ganache over the top of it.  It was very pretty, very delicious and very rich.  One piece was enough.  I would make it again if someone requested it.  Otherwise I think I’d try something new.  Luckily with a family my size there are only two pieces per person total (except for Nathan who didn’t eat that much) so leftovers weren’t a huge deal.  We played on our new Wii and got way too goofy.  There were so many giggles you wouldn’t believe.  We really enjoyed the evening.

We had intended on having a child friendly count down around 9:30 or 10 but Kaitlyn was playing games with us the whole time and enjoying herself.  Finally at 11:45 she said she was “sooo tired her legs hurt” but at that point we told her she had to stay awake just a few minutes more to see the ball drop.  We served grape juice all around toasting the old year out and hoping that 2011 will be a good one to us.  -Happy New Year!