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There was a time when New Years Eve meant going out with friends to the hottest night club party we could find, and kissing my special someone at the stroke of midnight with our champagne flutes in hand. That was me then, this is me now. Married to that special someone with three kids, and not willing to get out there and drive with the loonies or pay a sitter a ridiculous fee that is if I could even find a sitter. Besides, now, I have three more special someones who I want to ring in the New Year with.

Here are some ways that we party with our kids. The hardest thing about New Years with kids is going to be the challenge of keeping them up until midnight. The key to doing this, is by making sure that you have plenty of activities planned. We like to spend the day decorating for the evening. Usually this entails going to the store to shop for the snacks that we will have, getting supplies for the actual decorations and so on.

For food, I don't really plan a full meal. We usually eat an early dinner around 4 or 5 to hold us over because there will be a lot of snacking going on. Our snacks are usually healthy but still kid friendly. Some of the things that we usually have are veggies and ranch dip, homemade pizza bagel bites, fruit and yogurt dip, we also have cheese and crackers. For the adults, I might make a hot crab dip or artichoke dip, might have some salsa, maybe some chicken tenders for the kids and wings for the adults. Just whatever we're feeling like. I always let the kids help with the food preparation. Oh, and for sweets, we decorate cookies, and we have ice cream sundaes that we all make our own.

Drinks- I usually let the kids help me create a special punch for them. We usually use sprite, 7-up or Ginger-ale, add to that either orange, raspberry or rainbow sherbet, we also pick a fruit flavored drink- personally, I think that fruit punch or orange juice work best, but it's up to the kids to pick it. One year we froze the juice in my bunt pan with berries in it instead of using ice, and then scooped the sherbet in on top. We also have water. For mom and dad, of course, we have champagne for our toast and we will probably be drinking wine or water throughout the evening.

The tableware- I always go to the dollar store for this. Since there are only five of us, it is supper cheap to get it here. I let the kids pick whatever they want. Sometimes we match, other times we don't but the important thing is, that it's a party for them, and they are decorating

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