New Year’s Eve

I got this great idea from a friend and was so excited to start a new Haas Family New Year’s Eve tradition.  I bought 7 bags and labeled them by the hour, starting with 6 p.m. and ending at 12 a.m.  Each bag was to be opened on the specified hour and contained a family activity for that hour.  Not only would we have a blast, but all the activities and anticipation kept us awake until midnight!  All of us had a difficult time waiting until 6 to kick off all the fun.

At 6 p.m. we opened the first bag.  It contained all the things we needed to make cookies.  We had ritz crackers, peanut butter, and chocolate flavored almond bark.  This ended up being a huge disaster!  The cookies were a mess and looked terrible.  However, they still tasted good and Liberty had a lot of fun making them.

Daddy and Emory sat in the kitchen and watched as Liberty and I made a huge mess!

After cleaning up, it was just about time to open the 7:00 bag.  Now that Liberty had a better idea of what was to come, she was even more excited.

The second bag contained a family craft.  I tried to think of something we would be able to save and look back on throughout the years.  I came up with these ceramic tiles.  Again, what seemed like a great idea turned out to be quite messy.  However, after a small learning curve, we were able to produce a rectangle tile with each of the girls handprints.  Later Liberty would paint and decorate them.

I was very excited about the 8:00 bag.  It contained a new game for the family.  Playing games is one of Liberty’s favorites and something we do on a regular basis.  The challenge is finding a game that all of us will enjoy.  Liberty could sit and play games like Candyland and Hi-Ho Cheerio for hours, but Scott and I need something a little more stimulating.  I finally settled on Apples to Apples.  This game helps Liberty with her reading skills and is a great way to learn the meaning of words.  Plus, it can be super hilarious.  Even though it was a little above her reading level, she loved it and we all had a great time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By 9:00 I was ready for a quieter activity.  I knew this wouldn’t be as exciting for Liberty as all the other gifts, but I thought it was really important.  For awhile now, Scott and I have been saying scripture-based blessings over the girls before they go to sleep.  I have been meaning to print them out but just never have.  This was a perfect opportunity.  Each girl got a sheet of paper with her name written on it.  It listed the blessings that Scott and I want to speak over them this year and their scripture reference.  I also chose for each girl a specific character trait that I wanted them to focus on this year.  I specifically wanted Liberty to focus on not being afraid.  I wrote out several scriptures that I thought would help her as she prayed through them this year.  Emory was a little more difficult since she is so little and is not old enough to participate on the same level.  Instead of focusing on something she needed to work on, I chose something that is already a clear gift of hers.  I want to continue to encourage her to be Joyful.  I listed the scriptures that support this sweet gift.  After we talked about the scriptures and blessings for each girl, we watched a slide show of pictures from the past year.  This was Emory’s favorite.  She loved watching all the pictures.  She kept blowing kisses to the tv.

At 10:00, Emory went to bed.  There was no possible way she was going to make it to midnight.  Liberty opened the gift by herself.  It was a movie and popcorn.  It was the perfect gift to get us almost all the way to the 12:00 hour.

At 11:00, Liberty opened a bag that contained candy.  I just want to mention that Scott had fallen asleep on the couch by this time and missed the opening of the 11:00 gift.  We should have eaten his candy!  We saved it for him though and he did wake up about 15 min later.  We at the candy and finished watching our movie.

The countdown begins! We opened our 12:00 bag about 10 minutes early.  It, of course, contained lots of party stuff—tiaras, horns, party poppers, steamers, and balloons.  Emory woke up right before midnight and was able to celebrate for a few minutes before we all headed off to bed after the best New Year’s Eve party ever!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I HOPE YOUR YEAR IS BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE!