Friday, January 01, 2010

New Year's Eve

One year, I made fondue for New Year's Eve, and the kids decided it should be a tradition. Hallelujah! I love traditions, especially ones that are endorsed by my family, they're so much easier to establish and maintain...

This year, we invited Marc's parents and Michelle's family to join us.

Eva was ready to party from the moment she woke up and whispered that she wanted some sort of fancy breakfast (I came up short, not having planned any kind of breakfast).

She carefully put together her fanciest party outfit and wore it all day long.

Mom, the bracelets could not be more of a hit!

Eva helped me to make homemade marshmallows (a first) and two kinds of bread. I'm not a huge marshmallow fan, but I thought these were good. My mom would looooove them.

a picture from one of my new cookbooks (oops, forgot to take a picture of the finished product!)

We played Uno and Jill's Skip-Bo game with Eva. Then I had to make the chocolate fondue, and she was upset because she wanted to play more games. Grandma and Grandpa played Yahtzee and Bananagrams with her and Marc joined her for a rousing game of Memory.

Grandpa working on his latest project and indulging Eva by wearing one of the party crowns she made.

my dessert plate

After dessert, Eva went to bed and we played a new game that Michelle gave to Bob & Mim: You've Been Sentenced. It was really fun and kept us laughing for two hours.

I will say that the later it got, the more our sentence-forming abilities seemed to suffer!

Just before midnight, we turned on the tv to watch the ball drop in all its pre-recorded splendor and toasted the new year with sparkling cider. Even when you're having fun, New Year's Eve is just always anti-climactic. But that didn't stop Lucas from making all kinds of "I haven't done that since last year" jokes.

After midnight, Michelle and Bob left for home, Mim and Bob slept in our very deluxe guest room downstairs (not!), and Nicole and Kristen set up an air bed in the family room. Eva and Jack were especially delighted to have a sleepover. (In fact, Eva lobbied pretty hard to get someone to sleep on the trundle bed in her room, but to no avail.)

Before everyone departed this morning, Max treated us to a mini-concert (part of the Bach Cello Suites). I always enjoy listening to him play.

The rest of the day has been yet another laze-about day -- doing a little bit of clean-up, a little bit of prep for my new Primary class, loading photos on the computer, and working on Lucas's getting ready for school homework...

13 comments:

Miranda said...

oh I LOVE the idea of fondue for New Years! I shall adopt the tradition. Also, am impressed by Max's cello skills. I would love to learn to play a stringed instrument someday.

Amy said...

I am curious, do you use an electric or candle-heated fondue pot? I am not happy with mine and have been contemplating a new one. If you recommend yours, let me know. bartamy@sbcglobal.net

Thanks!

Jill said...

I love Eva's fancy outfit, it's too funny.

I'd like to try a homemade marshmallow, it's hard for me to wrap my mind around what they would be like.

I love Mim & Bob and think it's so cute that they wore those crowns and played with Eva.

I don't own a fondue pot, somehow that's wrong isn't it?

I love a new game, you'll have to tell me all about this one.

patsy said...

I have always wanted to make marshmallows-- I've made marshmallow cream before & filled cupcakes with it. IT was FABuLous! I love marshmallows!

I bought a new fondue pot for New Year's Eve but then we didn't use it.... I think we will Sunday night.

I am feeling the opposite- I am excited to get back to routine (most of it, not homework) and have some alone- free time. Although I will have jack home for a bit & a lot of mission prep going on- still the older I get the more I enjoy a bit of time alone.

Bond Girl 007 said...

ohhhh la la fondue...I love fondue, my favorite cheese and meat...but desserts sound great too! How fun to get together with family....looking forward to reading about the last month.....maybe this weekend.
ciao
got your lovely card. thank you.

Amy said...

We were going to do fondue on NYE, but then Jeremy took the kids snowshoeing and they all decided they wanted Pizza for dinner. We had fondue last night. The kids weren't so crazy about the cheese mixture--thank goodness we had leftover pizza!-- but they really dug the chocolate. Maybe we'll start a dessert fondue tradition for the next few years.

Your evening sounds like fun! Happy New Year!

Michelle said...

We had such a blast. The photo of me is continued motivation for my weight loss journey.

I'm sorry I missed the cello concert - he has such a gift!

Thanks for a wonderful party!!

Amanda :-) said...

Hello! I love how casual your New Year's celebrations were. I love when people just go with the flow. I love that Eva wanted a 'fancy breakfast'! Traditions - I just blogged briefly about First Footing. That's quite an established Scottish/Gaelic tradition over here, and funny because you have to throw a dark-haired man out of the house first and shut the door on him! Brrrr!

That image of Max with the cello and the tree is just lovely. The colours and tones are beautiful.

Kim Sue said...

crowns
sparkly braclets
homemade bread
homemade marshmellows
chocolate fondue
games
cello concert
and family
what fun!

shannon said...

I'm not reading these posts in order! Hence my advice to you in the next post about not wasting your time with homemade marshmellows...I'm impressed that you did it! and with Eva's help!--even more impressing! I don't think I would have attempted this sticky project with anyone under 20! :)

You make every event look like something right out of a magazine!

Amanda said...

Eva's outfit is spectacular! How I miss having a little girl. Although mind still dresses up in pioneer get up.

We tried fondue last year and our kids hated it. We were so hoping it would be our tradition! Well, they hated the cheese, the chocolate was a hit.

Sounds like a lovely, family filled night.

Love the crowns on the grandparents, Max's cello concert.

Rebekah said...

I made homemade marshmallows once and really loved the result. Marshmallows are one of those things that I never thought of making myself, or that I would be able to make myself.

Anonymous said...

I enjoy homemade marshmallows, but have never made them. I forget about them when I am thinking of new things to try. This has me wanting...

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