New Year

We haven't ever really celebrated New Year's Eve with the kids.  This year I decided (last minute, as is my style) to change that.  

No way was I going to let them stay up until Midnight--I was sure I wouldn't make it that late, anyway.  

So I decided to do cheese fondue for dinner.  That's festive, right?  I figured if it went over well, fondue could be our New Year's tradition.

I picked up some party hats and fun plates at the dollar store.  I let the kids customize their hat, and they went to town decorating one for each member of the family.  I also covered the table with paper and let them decorate it.  It turned out to be pretty festive for a last-minute arrangement!

We also had sparkling grape juice.  The kids really have no idea what people do with wine, but Everett instructed us on how to hold the goblet.  Where does he even get this stuff?  Hilarious.  (The goblets were plastic and came in a set of six at the dollar store.  We're just classy like that.)

The cheese fondue was excellent, if I do say so myself.  I used some colby jack and some smoked apple gorgonzola.  We had steak, shrimp, brussels sprouts, pumpernickel bread, french bread, and cherry tomatoes to dip in it.  The kids loved all the food but I think the cheese was a little too strong for most of them.  

After dinner we turned on a movie.  I thought about playing games, but I was too tired.  I was also planning on doing round two of fondue: chocolate, but I was too tired.  This pregnancy has driven me to use that phrase often in the year 2013, so I suppose it was only right that we ended it that way.  (I always feel better after I have the baby than before, so I'm confident in hoping 2014 will not have the same theme.)  The kids didn't seem to mind that their mother was a party pooper, because along with the after-dinner movie, I produced a pack of glow sticks for each of them.

Kid heaven!  (And Mom Heaven!  I could just sit on the couch and giggle with them!)

(I feel it necessary to point out that yes, Joel was here and was indispensable in the execution of the evening.  It is only thanks to him that we even had one.)

This is William.  He preferred throwing his glow stick circle like a frisbee to doing anything else.


I think the kids had fun, and I think we will try to repeat this next year.  I would like to add in a family theme for the year, or a goal, or both, or something like that from now on.  At least this time I'm giving myself a year to think about it rather than a couple of hours.

And one of these years, maybe we will stay up to watch the ball drop.