A New Years Eve Tradition

I think that New Years Eve may be my favorite holiday from a celebration point of view.  We don't have to go anywhere, no one expects anything from us, there are no gifts, and no disappointments.  

Unfortunately we skipped last year due to the craziness of the year, but the year before that, we started a new tradition that we continued this year, and it was so much fun!

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking here, but this is what it is:

I give each child a page out of a scrapbook and we use stamp ink to make a print of both of their hands and a foot and then we help the little ones write about themselves.  They write what they like to eat, do, read, how tall they are, their exact age and any other fun thing that they want to have to remember themselves by.  Fifthchild Annie was here, too, so she got a page as well.  Then we take a photo of each kid to add to their page and waalaa!  A fun way to remember the kids and to track their growth!

We also did a puzzle and make a whole bunch of yummy goodies, so since the table was fully covered, we made dinner super easy by just cutting up some cheese and cold cuts with lettuce and tomatoes to make subs while we watched a DVD.  

Then, at about 8:30, we celebrated the new year with the little guys by letting them use the nice champagne glasses and counting down and drinking sparkling apple juice.  (First we clink, then we drink.  Clink and drink.  Good, good.  Keep going...Anyone else watch Despicable Me way too many times, too?)

Oh, but I forgot one really important part!

When we start to count down from 12, everyone has 12 grapes and each person has to eat their 12 grapes before the count gets to 0!  Of course, we didn't push too many grapes on the little kids because we didn't want them to choke, but Annie managed to choke herself on the second time that we did it 'for real' at midnight.  (But don't tell the little dudes that it really wasn't midnight when they went to bed!  First they will deny it, and then they will be really really upset!)

So, without further ado, here are the pictures!

And I just have to add these super cute pictures of the kids in their new pajamas.  And take a look at Gabriel's slippers.  He got them as hand-me-downs from a friend of his at church, and he LOVES them!  He wears them all day and even sleeps in them.  We have to take them off his feet after he is asleep.  I have never seen a kid like slippers so much.  Whenever Jo or Elizabeth got slippers, they never used them especially if they were the type that were wide on their feet.  Finally my sister made Elizabeth some 'sockfeet' that are knitted socks with leather bottoms, and we found some like that for Jo at the thrift store last year, but other than that, I have never ever seen such love for slippers!

I just love kids in pajamas!  I even like the word 'pajamas' itself.  It's such a snuggly word.  (Please disregard the mess in the background.  I'm not really sure what happened there, but I can pretty much guarantee you that it's probably still happening...)