I decided to try out countdown bags. These were a huge hit. It kept the night exciting and suspenseful as they waited to to see what was in the next bag. I wrote a time on the front of each paper lunch sack and on the inside of each was a note that told at least one activity that we would do together for that hour. They were not allowed to look in the bags until the clock hit the time on the bag.(Yes I do realize there's no 11:00 bag, that is on purpose.) Daddy didn't get out of work until 7pm, so I decided to start our party at 6pm so that he could be a part of at least most of the activities (besides I didn't think I could handle more than a 6 hour party.lol) The activities in each bag were not intended to necessarily last the whole hour, but at least give us one thing to do within the hour. There was some free time between activities and a chance for me to get ready for the next one.
Here's a breakdown of what we did each hour.
6:00p.m. Game Time! We're a big board game family. We love playing them. The girls had already asked and were expecting to play some games, plus they just got 2 new games for Christmas. So, I decided it would be best to start our party off by playing a couple. Besides, I decided I would rather have Daddy included in some of the other activities that I had planned.
7:00p.m. Food time! I wanted to wait until close for daddy to get home to do food time. Both Sis and Boo love to help me cook so I decided it would be fun to teach them how to make pigs in a blanket. I printed off this simple recipe for them to follow. I read them each step and they did most of it themselves! After we made those. The girls helped me set the table with all of the party food. I decided to go with all finger foods. Our menu consisted of a crock pot of queso and tortilla chips, mini pigs in a blanket, loaded potato sticks (which we recently found in the frozen food section and are sooo good!), and popcorn for later.
8:00p.m. Memory Can...Our Memory box or can is a tradition that we started 2 years ago. The first year we decorated a box and last year a can. Our can is still in good shape so instead of making a new one this year we decided to just reuse the one we have ( we purposefully didn't put a year on last time for this reason.) We keep our can on a shelf and all year we drop in memories or events as they happen. For example we have written about all of our field trips, vacations, weddings, and fun memories. We also love to include small memories like something funny that baby bear did or "today mom saw huge spider and screamed." Everyone is allowed to drop something in whenever they want. We all sit down on NYE and read all of the memories together. It's always amazing to see how much actually happened in our family in one year! We also have a lot of laughs. Daddy has this game with the girls (pretty much daily) where he randomly screams at the top of his lungs "Dad is awesome!!" and they all shout back "You're not awesome!!!" Then he chases and tickles them all. They've been doing this since Sis was little. It's a joke that about 10 of the slips of paper we find in the memory box say "DAD IS AWESOME!" they crack up, we all know who dropped those slips in...I know it's sort of a "you had to be there," kinda thing.lol.
9:00p.m. Resolutions and Prayer! This was my favorite part of the night and will definitely become a tradition to stay. This is the first year that any of my girls have shown an interest in NY resolutions. Baby Bear went to bed, so I figured this was a good time for this activity which is more geared toward the older girls. The girls each had "resolutions" that they had been thinking up since earlier in the week. I made a sheet with each family member's name on it and a blank for us to each write in one resolution for the new year. We passed it around and then put it in an envelope. We'll keep our envelope in our memory can to look back at next year and see how we did. I really wanted to figure out a way to make our night meaningful and about Jesus. Next I passed out a slip of paper to each person. We had a few moments of self examination and I asked everyone to to come up with one area of their heart or attitude that needs to become more Christlike. We wrote them down on our slips. Then we had a time of prayer. We took turns repenting and praying about those areas of our hearts. We dedicated the new year to Christ and prayed for each other. It was really a pretty awesome time. Finally we took our slips of paper, wadded them up and threw them away symbolizing that we were done with those old attitudes and behaviors.
10:00p.m. Family Movie Time! The girls have been waiting forever to watch Dolphin Tale 2, part one is one of their favorite movies. So, I decided we would watch a movie together to cover both the 10:00 & 11:00 bags. We made popcorn, all snuggled up under big blankets, and then enjoyed the movie.
12:00a.m.-HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! In our midnight bag was simply a paper that said Happy New Year! I didn't get a chance to buy party blowers, hats and all that, so I made the girls super quick "noise makers" out of small snack containers and popcorn kernels. We turned on the countdown a few secs before the ball began to drop (sadly that's the only part of the NYE show I feel is appropriate to even watch.) We counted down and then made all kinds of racket shaking our noise makers and shouting "Happy new Year."
I think this was one of our best stay at home New Years celebrations ever. Both Sis and Boo made it to midnight no problem. The kids said it was"more fun than Christmas Eve." I will definitely be planning another hourly countdown for them next year. I look forward to what 2015 holds for us. My biggest hopes for this year are that as a family we draw closer to God and together accomplish much for His Kingdom.
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