Happy New Year 2012!!!

We have some really strong New Year's Traditions in our family.  I grew up out East, away from extended family, so my parents found it necessary to create some of our own traditions to help make the holiday's more enjoyable.  On New Year's Eve they never left us kids to go to their own party, instead they partied with us.  Because of that, New Year's Eve is one of our favorite holiday's, with the best memories!

 Traditions include - 

Chinese Food - all homemade from scratch

Predictions

Talent Show

Going out into the street at Midnight, banging pots and pans and being Merry!

This year we were super fortunate to have Brooke and Mick with us.  (I LOVED having my sister there to help with all the fun, prep and games!)  We also invited over our friends the Phair's and the Sheffield's (Alyssa and Brenda are my partners in our gourmet club, and they had never met, so this gathering was killing many birds with one stone:))  Katelyn came up from Salem because she has spent every New Year's with us for the last 4 years!  She is Kylie and Bailey's super good friend.  Also, Anthony (Sheffield) had to go get his mom and sister from the airport during our little party, so we got to meet them as well.  In total we had 11 adults and 13 children.  Oh, I think I need to mention that Brenda and Anthony have 1 year old twins! WOW!

Harrison giving Bennett some love.

Most of the crowd dishing up.

The Chinese Food
Sweet and Spicy Rumaki, Fried Rice, Sweet and Sour Chicken
Cashew Chicken, Egg Rolls, The Plate

For Drinks we had Banana Slush and Custard Eggnog.  We all love Grandma Ritz's Eggnog!
Bennett really had a good time with it.  I promise, it was not 'spiked.'  

Amelia (Phair) eating an eggroll on a fork. This cracked me up.  I prefer to eat mine with my hands.

Harrison LOVES to be near baby Greta (Phair) - he made her cry though because he wanted her to lay down with him so they could cuddle.  **Side note - He wants our new baby to be a girl, and name her Greta.  That's how much he loves her.

Harrison is better off with Amelia, who is his age.  Eating their yummy Chinese food!

Bennett being very entertained by Kevin!  FYI - Kevin was in great form this night.  I got a great abs workout from laughing so hard!

Harrison LOVED going to the drinks table and taking turns drinking the slush and eggnog.

Bennett mimicking my sister while she was talking, with one of the twins behind him.

I realized after looking through my pictures that Bennett was hanging out with Kevin a lot that night.  At this point he had seen Kevin laying down, and decided that he should lay down too.

And now they are playing Angry Birds together.

Lily was kinda bored with so many little kids around, until she realized how much fun one year old twins can be!

At about 8ish we counted down to "midnight" with the kids so they could all go to bed!  We had fun toasting with sparkling cider.

The Phair's and The Sheffield's

After our pretend midnight the Sheffield's left with their crew.  I noticed as they were walking out that one of the kids had been playing peek-a-boo with my snowman.

Brooke and Mick taking pictures of each other with my camera and theirs.  Thanks guys!

Katelyn attacking Brookie.

Kids in bed, Game time for adults!  I just gotta say, Funnest New Year's Game Night EVER!!!  Any joke is funnier when said in Mick's Aussie Accent! (Yes, we had ice cream cake too!)

At midnight we watched the Ball Drop in Times Square from our Family Room.  Lots of Kisses at Midnight.  Lily is Kissing Jason in this picture!

After cheering with the crowd in Times Square we went out with our neighbors and watched all the fireworks, set off a few of our own and watched Kevin dance.  It was great fun!  Oh yeah, Bennett had woken up right before this because we were laughing so hard while playing games.  Oops...

Just after midnight we got an email from my sister Paige in Colorado informing us that our baby sister Bailey got first place in predictions and I got SECOND place!  I've only got first one other time, and it's been years now.  I am hoping that I do better this next year!  The email included all the predictions for this upcoming year so we could vote and send it back to her to write on the cards. 

What are predictions?  Every year, on New Year's Eve we would make predictions for the upcoming year.  My mom would write them on cards, we then pass the cards around the circle, and we all write our vote down along with any side comments, mostly funny.  The next year we read them, see who got the most right, and make new predictions for the next year.  

Examples of predictions - 

Will Corinne's baby be a boy or girl?

Will Betty White die? (This was one of last years.  Bummer for those who said yes!)

Who will be the President of America?

Will Bailey be pregnant?

It is a great way to look back on the year we have enjoyed, and look forward to all the exciting things to come!