5 Ways to Celebrate New Year's Eve at Home with Family

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Who says that you have to go out to have fun on New Year’s Eve? If it is just the immediate family this year, that’s alright. Here are five ways that you can welcome the New Year and have a few laughs at the same time.

Holidays are about making memories. On the last day of a year you’ll never see again think of ways that you can share it with those who mean the most to you.

1. Watch some movies. There will certainly be enough time before midnight for everyone to throw a movie they like into the mix. You can give your movie night a theme. Choose a variety of movies celebrating other holidays in the year. You’ll have scary, funny, romantic, dramatic and jingle bells thrown in for good measure. How’s that for eclectic?

2. Play board games. On a regular night it might be hard to get everyone together to have a family game night. But, on this night, everyone is at home. Bring back a little of those childhood years with games like Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders (that’s a really old one), Sorry! And Life. For a large family, set up more than one game station so everyone can play what they like.

3. Play team games. This is when people traditionally play charades, drawing games and others. Divide into teams and see who can put on the best game face. Keep changing teams so that each family member gets to be on a team with each other. You can also make up your own games like a team scavenger hunt throughout the house.

4. Reminisce with old pictures. Who is that kid in the plaid pants and butterfly collar shirt? It might be you. Use this time to bond as a family. Go through old photo albums and remember times gone by. There may be a few pictures of folks you don’t remember. Or, there could be some interesting stories that are told just from a photo. If nothing else, you're sure to share a few great laughs!

5. Make a dessert. All this other fun may make you want to feed your sweet tooth. For those who want to, let them make a dessert for the family to try. The more desserts you have, the more yummy goodness you can enjoy.

What are you doing for New Year’s Eve? These five ideas offer fun for the family who wants to spend time celebrating together.

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Fudge Topped Peanut Butter Cookies

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These easy to make cookies are so delicious, no one will know they aren't from scratch.

Fudge Topped Peanut Butter Cookies

What You Need:

1/2 C of peanut butter chips
1/2 C whipped ready to spread chocolate frosting
1 (18 oz.) pkg. refrigerated chocolate chip cookie mix

How to Make It:

Preset the oven to 350 degrees allowing the oven to preheat.
Place the peanut butter chips into a saucepan.
Place the pan over low heat and stirring constantly cook for 5 minutes or until the chips have completely melted.
Remove the pan from the stove.
Stir the frosting into the melted chips until well blended.
Allow the mixture to cool in the saucepan for 10 minutes.
Place the cookie dough pieces onto an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 in apart.
Bake the cookies for 12 minutes or until set.
When the peanut butter mixture has cooled form it into 20 even shaped balls.
Remove the cookies from the oven.
While the cookies are still hot carefully press 1 peanut butter ball into the middle of each cookie.
Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Makes 20 cookies

Any type of chips may be used in this recipe including semisweet chips, white chocolate chips or mint flavored chips.

Preparation Time: approximately 20 minutes
Baking Time: approximately 12 minutes
Cooling Time: approximately 12 minutes
Total Time: approximately 44 minutes

Nutritional Information per cookie: (approximate values)

Calories 180; fat 8 g; sodium 110 mg; carbohydrates 23 g; sugar 14 g;
protein 3 g

This calls for use of the oven, so Mom or Dad will have to help. Fun to make and even more fun to eat!

Silly Snake Munches

What You Need:

1 small red bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips
4 (11 oz.) cans refrigerated breadsticks
2 pkg. cheese smoky links or regular hot dogs
1 t of processed cheese spread
48 small raisins

How to Make It:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cut 24 small pieces of red bell pepper to look like a tongue.
Remove the breadstick dough from the cans but do not unroll.
Separate each one of the breadstick dough into 6 pieces.
Unroll 1 roll of the dough and press to seal the center perforation.
Loosely wrap the dough around a smoky link leaving about 1 1/2 in. dough extending from each end. Make one end slightly flattened, and the other end pointy, to look like the head and tail of a snake.
Continue until all the smoky links have been wrapped.
Place the wrapped smoky links on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Form small balls of foil and place under the "heads" so that they are raised while baking.
Make a small slit in the 'head' to form a mouth.
Bake 15 minutes or until the dough is a golden brown.
Place the baked snakes on a platter.
Place a tiny amount of the cheese spread onto the head of each snake where the eyes and tongue would be placed.
Place two raisins on each snake for the eyes and a piece of bell pepper on each one for the tongue.

Makes 24 servings

Kids love these little sneaky snakes. Regular hot dogs may be used in place of the smoky links if you prefer. Serve with dipping sauces.

Preparation Time: approximately 30 minutes
Baking Time: approximately 15 minutes
Total Time: approximately 45 minutes

Ham It Up With Sandwich Roll Ups

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Here's another really easy and fun recipe that kids can do on their own. For smaller kids, Mom or Dad can take care of the knife work.


Ham It Up Roll Ups

What You Need:
8 slices of white bread
2 (2.5 oz) pkg. cooked ham sliced thin
8 (1 oz.) sticks of string cheese
1 C of honey mustard salad dressing
Lettuce

How to Make It:
Cut the crust off each slice of bread.
Use a rolling pin and roll each slice of bread to about 1/4 inch thickness.
Divide the ham between the 8 slices of bread.
Lay a lettuce leaf on top of the ham.
Place a stick of string cheese on each slice of bread at the edge closest too you.
Roll the bread over the cheese and ham.
Place 4 toothpicks into the roll about 1 inch apart.
Using a serrated knife cut each roll into 4 sections.
Serve with the honey mustard for dipping.

Makes 32 roll ups

These roll ups can be made the night before the big party. Cover them tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve. Any type of thin sliced meat can be used such as turkey, chicken or roast beef.

Throw a Themed Party for New Years Eve

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It’s that time again. One year gone and another fast approaches. If you are used to being the party host, mix things up this year with a New Year’s Eve theme party.

What is a theme?

A theme party is one that is based around a certain idea. It can be something related to the holiday or something totally different. It is all up to you.

Theme parties are fun because everyone gets to participate. All of your guests can wear a costume and come ready to have fun.

Theme Ideas

Well, there are a million ideas that would be appropriate for a party. Now, some stick with a traditional theme for New Year. How about the Roaring Twenties? Your guests can dress as Dapper Dan or a sultry flapper.

What about a 60s party? You’d be surrounded by flower power and long hair all evening but to each his own. The idea is to make the party one that your guests won’t want to miss.

Theme Decorating

When you choose your theme, you will want the guests to feel like they have walked into that time. If your theme is “disco boogie,” be sure that there is at least one disco ball hanging from your ceiling. You can forgo the lit dance floor if you don’t have room, but it would be a conversation piece!

The Kids

Don’t forget the younger set that is joining you for the party. They may not appreciate the 60s or the disco era, so give them the opportunity to have their own theme represented at the party. Your kids can come up with ideas for their generation. It doesn’t have to match the adults since they will be celebrating in a different space.

Contests

Everyone will be dressed in their best to try and become the belle and beau of the ball. Come up with contest categories: Best Dressed, Most Authentic, Funniest Costume, and etcetera. So everyone can participate, type out ballots with the contest categories and let the guests vote for their choices. And yes, they can vote for themselves. There is one stipulation: Kids vote for kids and adults for adults.

The prizes can also be themed. Choose something appropriate for each group like a lava lamp for a 60s or disco party and a pair of binoculars for a Dora and Diego kid’s party.

Who says that a New Year’s Eve party has to be just dresses and suits? A theme party adds a new dimension to the affair. Both kids and adults will want to get in on the fun that goes along with wearing costumes.

Image by Never Cool in School / Leslie Kalohi via Flickr

I don't know about you, but going out on New Year's Eve just doesn't hold the same appeal it used to. I think something about being a mom (hence, TIRED!) has something to do with it. :) And you know, I never thought it was fair that grown ups got to have all the fun on NYE - why not make it a special occasion for the kids, too? I mean, come on - it's the last day of the year and everyone is looking for ways to celebrate. If you have kids and DO want to party, you probably end up having to hire a sitter. This year, why not help yourself and your friends with a family party where everyone can have fun? After all, ringing in the New Year with your entire family (kids included) can be just as, if not more, fun than without them.

The most important part of any party is the planning. You want this party to be family-oriented so that adults and kids can both have a good time. First of all, that may mean no alcohol except the celebratory glass of champagne at midnight - or you may want to limit drinks to beer and wine. It's really up to you and the what kind of crowd you invite. For kids, try some sparkling cider or grape juice so they can join in the glass tinking at midnight as well.

Invitations

These need to go out as early as possible. Even before Christmas, folks are talking about how they will celebrate the New Year. One of the best things about a family-oriented party is that no one has to find a babysitter or stay home when they can’t find one.

With that in mind, invite your close friends and their families. Remember that each invitation will have at the least two and at the outset four or five respondents. So, five invitations can equal 25 guests. Check to see if your home can hold that many or more.

Make sure that the invitation is from everyone in the family. Use wording like: The Philip Family would like to invite you to their New Year’s Eve Party 2010.

The Party Setup

With kids involved, you will want them to have their own space. That means at least two rooms for the party. Kids aren’t very picky but they like their space.

You can set them up in the garage, the den or the family room. Any activities that you have planned for them will take place here. Include sleeping bags and pillows in case someone crashes before the ball-dropping hour.

The centrally located space can be for the adults. You can set up for party games, socializing and the food area here.

Decorations

These all depend on you and your guests. The kid area will make more of an impact with a great decorating design going on. For the adults, decorating with party favors gives you something to share with everyone when it’s time to go.

Partying with your kids isn’t so bad and you’ll prove that this year by hosting a family-oriented party of your own. Give the babysitters a night off for once. They want to party too

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Kid's Holiday Recipes

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I like to cook with my kids. I have two boys - ten and almost thirteen years old - and enjoy spending time in the kitchen with them. I want them to know how to cook, so they can be independent when they're older. And we have fun doing things together, even if the results don't come out perfect.

So, I thought as we get closer to the holidays, I would share some recipes that are great for doing with kids, and some that are easy enough for kids to do alone - or mostly alone.

This recipe is a good one to do with little ones - even though they may not be ready for using knives or cooking, they can help with measuring ingredients, and they LOVE shaking the bag! And of course, eating cheese poppers is something everyone loves.

What You Need:

3 T of flour

1/2 t of salt

1/4 t of pepper

1 egg

1 t water

1 1/2 C of fresh bread crumbs

1 (8 oz.) block of mozzarella cheese, cubed

Canola oil

How to Make It:

Place the flour into a zip lock baggie.

Sprinkle in the salt and pepper, seal and shake to combine.

Break the egg into a small shallow bowl.

Add the water and whisk until combined.

Place the bread crumbs into a shallow bowl.

Fill a deep fryer with the canola oil and preheat to 375 degrees.

Place a few cheese cubes into the flour mixture and shake to lightly coat.

Dip the coated cheese cubes into the egg mixture shaking off any excess egg.

Roll each cheese cube through the bread crumbs to lightly coat on all sides.

Drop the coated cheese cubed into the hot oil.

Fry 2 minutes, turning occasionally for even browning, or until the cheese begins to melt and the outside is a crispy golden brown.

Drain the cheese cubes on paper towel before serving.

Makes 8 servings

Be sure that your oil remains at 375 degrees. Remove the batch of cheese and recheck the oil to be sure that it is at the right temperature before adding more. If the oil is not hot enough it will take too long to cook causing the cheese to shrink and ooze before the coating is a crispy brown.

Preparation Time: approximately 20 minutes

Frying Time: approximately 2 minutes per batch

Draining Time: approximately 5 minutes per batch

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Come on into My Kitchen!

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Hi! I'm Kelly :) My kids call me 'Mama Kelly' - I'm their step-mom, and they have other "Mama's" in their lives, so this way we can keep all the 'mamas' straight. I love being a mom, and absolutely love cooking and preparing food.

I had started another blog, where I was detailing foods and recipes that I use in my daily life here in Lima, Peru. (My husband is Peruvian, and we moved here about 6 years ago) But that blog gradually became more and more of an update on my life and what is going on here, rather than being focused on the food. And I really want to do a blog that's FOCUSED on FOOD - but it's also going to be focused on family.

This is NOT going to be all about Peruvian cooking, although I will occasionally throw some simple to follow Peruvian recipes in. I was raised a Southern girl, and love country style cooking. But I also love to experiment with lots of different styles. I have not ever formally studied cooking, so I tend to do things with 'a couple pinches of this or that' when I cook, rather than being stuck on difficult to follow recipes.

So, here I am. I'm going to be blogging about a lot of things - party ideas, cookware, kitchen appliances, ingredients... but most of all, it's going to be about recipes. So - get ready - Here we go!

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