New Year's Eve 23 Days After It Happened

We have obviously been very busy with the new house, as is evidenced by my posting pictures of New Years Eve 23 days late... at least I got it in before February.

For the past several years, we have been on our own for New Years, not for lack of invitations to wonderful and deliciously exciting fun family and friend parties, but for some reason it seems that we have had strep throat in the past on New Years, stomach flu, or other equallly horrific ailments.  This year, because Zac had the day off for work we took full advantage of putting in a day's labor at the new house, which means we didn't get done until after 7 pm and we were just too worn out to venture out.  So on our way back to the rental I picked up some pizzas and Zac stopped at the grocery store to get snacks and we were good to go for a party.

When we got home, we got the mail and found that Santa had left us a letter.

Dad read the letter to us...

And it was a clue!  It took us into the shower where another clue was hidden behind the shampoo... 

Which led to more clues hidden throughout the house. 

Oh the excitement, apparently, Santa hid some gifts when he was here at Christmas to help us enjoy the New Years.  We got a new movie and a game.  And we thoroughly enjoyed playing and watching them for the rest of the night! 

This tradition actually started in our family one year when Charlotte had strep and we couldn't go anywhere.  I thought it would be a fun way to cheer up the kids and have an enjoyable holiday at home together and it was so much fun that we have continued to do it for the past 3 years!

I love seeing how our own new family traditions emerge and blend with the ones we grew up with:)

Like the tradition I grew up with of banging pots and pans outside at midnight and screaming "Happy New Years!!!" at the top of our lungs.  I gave each of our kids a pot and pan and told them to go for it... they all stood in the doorway and banged their pots and pans very quietly, as they were too shy and embarrassed to go outside. 

And even though our New Years didn't come in with a very loud bang, we hope to make a "bang" by getting into our house soon and then having a very quiet and relaxing rest of the year.