Ritz Bitz

Ritz Bitz
Showing posts with label New Year's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Year's. Show all posts

Saturday, February 8, 2014

New Year's Eve Traditions

Sorry I have no pictures for this post!  I was too busy partying!

I know it's too late for this year, maybe I'll re-post this next December, but I just had to share with you our super fun New Year's Eve (NYE) Traditions!

First off we make a lot of Chinese food including our own homemade Egg Rolls!!!  The whole Menu is HERE on my recipe blog.

Jason and I both grew up with BIG NYE traditions!  

Jason's dad's birthday was on NYE, and he was the bishop of their ward (leader of their congregation at church) for several years.  They lived in a big old farmhouse, and every year the whole ward would basically show up for the "Bob Ritz annual surprise birthday party."  They had a pool table in the attic game room, and everyone would bring food, shoot pool, play board games, sit and visit, and count down at midnight!  Even after Jason's dad passed away the "Annual Bob Ritz Surprise Birthday Party" took place for several more years.  Jason's mom had moved away, so he and I made an appearance one year at it.  It was great fun!

My family lived away from extended family most of the time I was growing up.  My parents didn't want to leave us kids to go hang out, and let's face it.  We were way more fun than any friends they might have had.  One year for Christmas, when I was very young, my dad gave my mom a wok and a Chinese food cook book.  That's when the Chinese food tradition started.  

Over time my mom added more and more activities that became part of our annual NYE.  Something we do often, but not every year, is a family talent show.  I have many home movies to prove the success of these talent shows!

Have you seen the movie Dan in Real Life?  Our NYE looks a lot like that movie.  HAHA Lots of crazy family fun traditions.

Of course, lots of board games were played, but the best #1 activity was Predictions
My mom would write predictions down on square pieces of paper, and we would vote one them.  Here are some examples, "Will Isaac pass his driving test?"  "Who will win the Presidential Election?"  "Will Mom still be Relief Society President?"  "Will Corinne be engaged?"  "Where will Jackson be called to on his mission?"  "Will there be another Terrorist attack on US soil?"

So you see a wide variety of  predictions.  We would sit in a big circle, pass them around, write our name, and our best guess.  As we go around people start calling out prediction to add.  My mom always had a stack of blanks ready to go.  Then, my mom would tuck them away in a safe spot till the next NYE.  

Each year before the new predictions are made, we read through the previous years predictions.  This is SO much fun!  It is a hilarious blast to read what people predicted a year before.  We have evolved to the point where we just don't write yes or no.  We add comments as to why we think yes or no.  These are hilarious to read a year later!  Some years my mom would have her act together, and there would be a prize for the winner!  

This year is the first year that we, Jason and I, have done predictions just us and our kids.  What a blast!


Thursday, January 26, 2012

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!

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