My husband will be working–like he has to do for every holiday. Good news is, though, that he will be home before midnight! I, too, will probably watch Dick Clark and play some board games or cards with my family. I’ll make some snack foods for everyone and try not to fall asleep. Best wishes to everyone for a great New Year.

about the same as Sherra–we are such party animals!!

We always go to Leigh Anne’s. Sherra is pretty darn close, but we’ll let Leigh Anne tell you all about it.

I plan a party every year at my house. However… this year, it’s at my friends house, about 10 of us, and my boyfriend and I will be bringing in our FIRST new year together! Yippee!!

OK – our yearly New Year’s Eve tradition does involve friends, food and fun!! We always invite a group of our friends over for our annual Soup’s On party. I cook up a selection of yummy soups and bread, a few appetizers and desserts. Guests also bring an appetizer or dessert to share. We enjoy visiting and eating. Later in the evening we play a few games and ring in the new year with sparkling cider and poppers!

We always do a fun party with friends ~ including the kids! We usually do a dinner or appetizers and play games and ring in the new year with cider, poppers, and LOTS of confetti! For the kids, we have “hour” bags and at the top of each hour, they reach into the bag and get something (necklace, hat, blowers, noise maker, etc.) and by the time midnight comes, they are all equipped to welcome in the new year! Sometimes, we even squeeze in a midnight breakfast!

Normally, we go “the Dick Clark route!” ( You WILD women, you!) ;0) However, this year will be very much “over-the-top” My husband Paul works with one of the greatest families in the entire valley. They are very diversified in business but their main one is rather interesting…they are the largest import/export business for palm trees ( all varieties) world-wide. So…when you go to 5 star hotels, resorts overseas, Disneyland, etc…you get the idea, their family has supplied all of those palms that look like they’ve been there for 40 or 50 years, but they “went up over night.” Okay, so two of the things that make them really really great are: lack of pretentiousness and their generosity towards others. They LOVE to party…as a family ( which is HUGE, by the way), as a community, as friends…so they’ve invited us to their annual “New Years Eve Bash”….get ready… steak and shrimp fajitas with fresh tortillas, 4 bounce houses for everyone’s kids, out on one of the ranches, so Lord knows what we’ll be doing…( honestly HUGE fun-buns)…but the real kicker…a professional fireworks show…at 9:00, so we’re East Coast time and the early birds can leave and go to bed! ;0) Yes, it’s over-the-top, but I’ve no doubt that it will be F-U-N! ;0)

p.s. I love Cherilyn’s idea about the bags to equip every kid until midnight! SCORE on that for the future! ;0)

Since children we’ve been asleep or just about awake at midnight until last year. My mother-in-law stayed with the kids and we went to a friends house. Just the two couples with appetizer all night. We played games and went down memory lane (3 out of 4 of us went to high school together!). We were up until 4am! We’re going to do it again this year.

Usually we watch a movie and head to bed early.. My Sister In Law has a New Year’s Day party we attend. This year we are taking the boys to AC Gilbert House in Salem for New Year’s Eve and the welcoming of Oregon’s 150th birthday celebration year… Should be fun!

Usually we are just at home and I am in bed by 10:30. Party animal, huh? But this year a group of about 20 of us are going cosmic bowling. The local bowling alley is having a special where you get a pizza, soft drinks, bowling from 10-2 and champagne at midnight. I think it’ll be fun!

This year for the first time in forever, all my husband’s sisters and their husbands will be at our house to snack and play games. I am so looking forward to it. Then the next day (New Year’s Day) we will all get together for dinner. It will be so fun. This is especially great because 4 of them live about 4-5 hours away. So we will have some of them staying overnight. Hooray, a slumber party!