Snapshots of Our NYE at Home + 4 Ways to Make NYE In More Fun

Posted on January 12, 2021

New Year’s Eve at home seemed to be the popular choice this year! Although its been our norm for as long as I can remember, [with the exception of a couple years where we’ve gotten together with other families – isn’t it funny how life before kids is such a distant memory ha!] I wanted to try to make it feel special even for just a few minutes. And not just for the kids. We, adults still want to have a good time too! Here are Snapshots of our New Year’s Eve at Home + 4 Ways to Make NYE In More Fun.

It doesn’t take much to excite the kids. The sheer fact that it was New Year’s Eve brought smiles to their faces! Here are a some of the photos from our family night in celebrating the [almost] start to 2021. I say almost because we did our countdown at 8 pm!

SNAPSHOTS OF OUR NYE AT HOME

Looking for some ways to spice up your New Year’s Eve in with the kids? Here is what we did:

4 WAYS TO MAKE NYE IN MORE FUN

ONE // A “SPECIAL DINNER”

The kids requested a “special dinner” so I started brainstorming a simple, but fun meal I could make them since T and I always cook dinner to enjoy after the kids go to bed. But as soon as one of them piped up and mentioned Portillos, the decision was made! Chicago style hot dogs, burgers and cheese fries was the perfect idea.

TWO // INEXPENSIVE PARTY FAVORS

I like to grab a few fun trinkets from Dollar Tree or the Target $1 spot for various holidays, but almost forgot this year! I ran out during the day on NYE hoping it wouldn’t be too picked over, but was pleasantly surprised with what was left!

Here is what I scooped up for the kids:

party blowers
colorful necklaces
party hats
confetti shooters
individual sparkling grape juice bottles
other things we pick up are: glow wands, glow bracelets, stickers, etc.

I think it would be fun to get a photo backdrop next year!

After dinner, they got all they garb on and were ready to party!

THREE // KIDDIE COUNTDOWN

Ever since Henry was 2 or 3, we’ve done a kiddie countdown early in the night so the kids can get a feel for the “ball drop” at midnight without having to let them stay up so late! I think our first kiddie countdown was at 6 pm. This year’s was at 8 pm and maybe next year, we’ll let them live on the wild side and do one at 9!

Winston didn’t even make it to 8 this year, so maybe this year ha.

We just do a search on our smart TV and landed on a great countdown on YouTube that was a few minutes long. It played great music so the kids blew their party horns and danced around the family room until the final countdown.

They had their confetti shooters ready when it started counting down from 20. We cheered [and they screamed!] and I even got kisses from a couple of my boys 😉

After that we let them dance around and have some more fun before we ushered them upstairs for bed. Mom and Dad were ready for their meal 😉

FOUR // DINNER FOR TWO + OUR GO-TO NYE COCKTAIL

A few years ago, we started the tradition of cooking steaks and scallops and enjoying a quiet, kid-free meal in the Dining Room [which is usually still set-up for Christmas] and this year was no exception. We picked up filets, scallops and champagne and enjoyed our dinner for two around 9:45 on NYE. Candles and all!

The best part was we had a date night in to look forward to without the need for a babysitter. Sometimes its just knowing you have scheduled in some quality time over a meal to hang out is all it takes to have a memorable night!

After dinner, we hit the couch with our Espresso 43’s in hand [I’ll share the recipe for our go-to NYE cocktail soon] and watched some shows. We made it to midnight, but its rare that we actually do. The espresso doesn’t hurt if you’re trying to stay awake!

And that was our NYE in!

a quick recap…