Whatever the equivalent is to being a Scrooge on Christmas, that's me for New Years. I find New Years kind of annoying and overrated. AND I need to make my peace with the fact that my kids want to stay up to midnight every year. Maybe next year?
Fiona has been really excited about Christmas and New Years, so I figured I could/should at least try to make it fun. A person I follow on Instagram (@the.book.report) suggested this idea - a balloon for each hour of the day with an activity inside. Pop the balloon, do the thing and do a count down when you need to - depending on the ages of the kids, and then voila, the littles don't feel like they've missed out. I was hoping to convince the girls to go to bed before midnight - it's church and McCartney Family Christmas tomorrow, but sadly, no takers.
Fiona and I went out last night and bought balloons and came up with the ideas. We got them ready this morning/afternoon. (We also put away all the Christmas stuff this morning - hence all the stuff around Fiona in the first picture.)
The McCartney Family is ready to party!
2 p.m. Portrait Drawing
3 p.m. Rock Painting
4 p.m. Family Dog Walk
Which turned into Ken and Wendy walk the dog because it was raining.
5 p.m. - Gratitude Time
The jar lasted January and February, that was it. It was fun reading them anyway.
Because we didn't make it past February, Fiona's and my birthday gratitude slips didn't make it. So we did them around the table. My children were cheeky. (Don't know where they get that from...)
I had prepared a gratitude page for everyone to fill out. I want to put them up on the wall. I think Kate will let me... maybe?
6 p.m. Dinner
We kind of forgot about dinner for tonight when Ken was planning and shopping so we decided to go out. We went to Jack Astor's. Their menu is really gluten friendly. AND winner winner, they gave us hats and crowns. SO AWESOME!
7 p.m. Family Games. We played two games of drawful, an online drawing/guessing game. It was fun!
8 p.m. Family Movie - We watched the second Enola Holmes movie and we all really enjoyed it!
10 p.m. Count down. It actually ended up being 11 o'clock, just after eleven when the movie was over. Fiona popped the last balloon and we did pictures and noise making!
And then I went to bed. The girls got ready for bed and Ken watched some countdown/music show with them. I was up in my bed for the countdown and could hear them, and thought about going downstairs, but I just really wanted to be with my grumpy self in my bed, so I was. By 12:15 they were all in bed, tucked in and I got my New Years kiss from Ken. We had fun. I think/hope the girls had fun. I was a little bit grumpy, but hopefully it wasn't too noticeable! I know, I'm silly. Ah well! Happy New Year.
2022 the year of getting back to normal, whatever that means! I'm still trying to figure out how to manage the busy and not get overwhelmed. We have had a great year with so many, many blessings. I'm thankful, so so thankful for my little family, for our faith, for our life we've built. It's a good life!
