Traditions - New Year's Eve and Day

 Happy New Years!  It is 2025 and that is just crazy!  Who remembers Y2K and all the fear?  Yet here we are 25 years later and that is just hard to believe.  I thought I would share one last "traditions" post around what we do for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.  

Our New Year's Eve plans are normally pretty simple.  When both Darryl and I worked full time we both always worked on New Year's Eve and then enjoyed a quiet evening at home.  We did start some traditions that we still do today though.  We usually had soup for an early dinner as we would both be home by about 3:30p.  I would make two different soups (and then we would eat leftovers the rest of the week HA!) that we could enjoy.  Then, later in the evening we would enjoy all kinds of New Year's Eve snacks.  It is always fun to "graze" throughout the evening when you are staying up until mid-night!  With kids and job changes (so schedule changes) we have altered things some.  More recently our traditions are to enjoy lots of great snacks for dinner with my mom at our house.  I make all of our traditional snacks and we just enjoy them together.  My mom likes to head home early and then we just hang out together - watch TV, play games, and countdown to midnight.  Some years we set off a few minor fireworks.  

Our New Year's Day traditions are even less exciting HA!  Honestly, we don't really have anything specific.  We all enjoy sleeping in that's for sure!  I will usually make brunch and then we enjoy heading to my mom's for an early dinner.  It is nice to gather together on the first day of the year and enjoy family.  Beyond that, we just enjoy the day.  Some years we take down the tree (and some years I keep it up for another week), or spend time outside (when the weather is unseasonably warm) or go shopping with Christmas money but other years we just enjoy the quiet of the day before all the "things" pick up again and it gets busy again.  

This year will be different (a good different) because my brother and sister-in-law will be in town so we are celebrating New Year's Eve with them at my mom's house with snacks and games and then New Year's Day with a great ham dinner that my mom is making.