Our kids are young and although they sleep through the night (sometimes), the idea of staying up until midnight on New Year’s Eve is not very appealing. Even if we wanted to pay double for a babysitter, is she going to stay the next day when we want to nap?
The first few years it wasn’t a big deal to skip it. I had my fair share of fun New Year’s Eves including seeing the ball drop in Time Square in 1998 in 30 degree weather. Yes, I stood around for 6 hours. Yes, the ball is much smaller in person. Yes, I’ve peed in Time Square because they weren’t porta potties. YES, I don’t ever plan to do it again. But do it once. It was worth it.
Ten or twenty years from now, Scott and I will ring in the New Year in amazing places like Italy or Brazil or just sleep in past noon on New Year's Day, but at this point, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on the midnight part or the drunk part or the OMG what did you do for NYE text part. However, I like the idea of doing something now that we're beyond those first years of babyhood so I decided to come up with a way to celebrate as a family each year.
One year, Scott and I and the kids dressed up to the nines, which was fun in and of itself. We made reservations as early as possible (seriously, 5 p.m.) at a fancy hibachi-style restaurant where they cook at your table, which amused the children. The timing was perfect because we weren’t going to be there when we would bother people on romantic dates and no revilers would bother us.
All dressed up and we DO have a place to go!
My toddler enjoying her New Year's Eve dinner celebration.
We also bought noisemakers, 2010 glitter hats, cookies and sweets. We rang in the new year at 7 p.m. with the kids and put them to bed by 8 o'clock. Scott and I snuggled up to watch a movie and went to bed at a decent hour. The kids were excited to wake up to a new year, and we could wake up happy to see them and the sunrise, too.
We’ve done something similar each year because we finally realized what our parent’s insisted for years: Nothing special happens after midnight even when I desperately wanted my high school curfew to be at 1 a.m..
Here’s to fantastic 2013 however you celebrate.
