New Year's Celebration 2018

We braved the cold weather on New Year's Eve and headed out to church that morning.  We attended worship at First Baptist Brookhaven.  After church we ate lunch at Ward's.  It was the boys choice.  We had also eaten there the week before on Christmas Eve.  I'd say they like it. 

lunch at Ward's on New Year's Eve

After eating we made a stop by the dollar store to pick up some balloons.  We also made a stop by the fireworks stand to pick up a few things before returning home.  

The temperatures were expected to be in the teens that night so we did not plan to get out and go anywhere.  Instead we had a fun celebration at home.  For the past few years I have been doing a balloon countdown for the boys on New Year's Eve.  It is becoming our tradition so we kept it going this year while in the States.  That afternoon I got busy filling balloons with confetti and putting fun ideas of things for us to do inside.  I had one balloon for us to pop every thirty minutes beginning at 5:00 p.m. and going until midnight.  The boys love doing this and were excited when I told them we were staying home to do it again this year. 

Here they are with our balloons-

Here is Ben popping the first balloon at 5:00.  Yes, the confetti makes a big mess but the fun of it makes it worth the clean up.

Our first activity was fireworks.  I decided to have us do that first before it got dark and colder.  

They loved the smoke bombs!

sparklers were also fun

This was Cruz's hair when he came back in and took his hat off. 

Our 5:30 balloon idea said to make homemade pizza and pop popcorn.

We shaped our dough in the numbers of the new year.  We each chose a number and that was our pizza to put toppings on and eat.

the boys adding toppings

ready for the oven

our New Year's Eve supper

after eating we took family photos

I gave out hats, glasses, and horns

Happy New Year from the Whites!!!

Next we had dessert.  It was our traditional New Year's cake that we have every year.  I use M&M's to shape the numbers.

Next up was game time.  The boys got Pie Face for Christmas and could not wait to play it.  That game provided a lot of entertainment and laughs.

Cruz reading another balloon activity

New Year's coloring sheets

Next we did play doh.  Another Christmas gift the boys received from family was a tub full of play doh and accessories. They have always loved play doh.

some of our creations

Skip-Bo Junior was another Christmas gift.  They LOVE this game.  We have spent many hours since Christmas playing it.

They both received puzzles for Christmas so we opened them and spent some time working them.  Many of my ideas for the night were from the Christmas gifts they received from family.

Another balloon activity that we do every year is a year in review.

This balloon idea was late in the night and Ben said he was too tired to color.  ha

One of my favorite New Year's Eve things to do is watch the ball drop in New York City.  We did not have a channel to watch it on this year so we watched it on our computer.

Ben fell asleep shortly afterwards but David, Cruz, and I made it all the way to midnight.  Cruz was very proud of himself.  It is the only night of the year that we let him stay up that late. 

We slept in on New Year's Day and then had a pancake breakfast.

New Year's Day breakfast

We watched the Rose Parade that morning and I cooked a roast for lunch.  We stayed in all day and passed the time watching movies and being lazy. Because we had stayed up so late the night before this is pretty much how we all looked on New Year's Day.

It was a great celebration and a fun way to make memories as a family.

Happy New Year from our family to yours!