Bring on the New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone!

Several days ago, I was planning on a quiet evening at home for New Year's Eve when I received a text asking what my plans were. And, on hearing about the "exciting" evening I had planned, I was asked if I would like some company. That's a question you never have to ask twice in this house any more. And so, I started thinking about what I could do to make the night stand out for grand daughters #1 and #3.

Since I have been accused of being a bit of a hoarder "saver", I headed straight out to my party supply box and started pulling out old props from past new year's eves. Many years ago, my husband and I would have our grand daughters for the celebration so that their parents could go out to a friend's party.

 
For several years, we used the "bag" method of celebrating. I would think of fun activities, put them in bags with the appropriate times and we would open one an hour leading up to the "big event". Of course, in those days, the girls couldn't make it to midnight so our big event happened at 9 P.M.
 

Fast forward to this year...the girls arrived and I lead them to my "stash" of memories and started asking them "do you remember when we...?" Right then, they asked me to sit down as they headed out to their car. Not only did they remember, but they had plans to recreate many of those precious memories! And they even planned for the night to end at 10 P.M. because they didn't think their Nana would make it much past that - Lol. But, I surprised them, and myself, by making it to see the new year arrive!

The 6 o'clock bag started us off with a movie.

Then, we were making confetti ( just like we used to do ) at 7 while we finished the movie.
8 o'clock saw us eating dinner with the same "extra thin" bread that we used to use for our finger sandwiches. I think I started using that stuff so we could eat twice as many!

9 o'clock saw us making vision boards with all of our hopes and dreams for the new year. Since we were all still going strong, we filled the balloons with our confetti and then watched Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve until there were about 10 minutes to go. The last bag found noise makers, hats, glasses and some sparkling grape juice so we could all toast in the new year.

When I was pulling the old props, I was also able to find some of our old photos...what fun we had!

Proof that we made it-although one of us is certainly looking the worse for the wear. Lol

And this is what my family room still looks like. Not sure why this doesn't bother me but, for some reason, messes after a fun family time never really do!

I hope everyone had as much fun as I did ringing in the new year. Bring on 2018! And, stay tuned!