Since DH hasn't been playing music out the past 2 NYE we stayed home. We always enjoy the quiet and each other's company. DH made a batch of pasta and a shrimp sauté for the topping. We had my homemade Challah and a glass of wine. We sat out on the front porch , it was in the 50's here, and enjoyed the quiet and talked about the past year. For dessert I made a lemon curd tart....it was so yum !

Thanks for a good thread...I am glad you are a presence ,tina, here on the GW forum. c

Glad you had a nice romantic evening-- sounds lovely! All my nearest and dearest were far away this year so mine was pretty low key. I was so tired by 9pm that I feared I wouldnt even make it to midnight lol!

I made a pot of coffee and added a little Patron Cafe Dark to it. Oh my, was that good. It was enough to keep me warm and awake through midnight in my time zone and then bf's. It wasn't the most romantic evening but I did enjoy it.

Tonight I'll join the family for our traditional pork and sauerkraut at my parents' house. Looking forward to a much more relaxed, happy and prosperous 2013-- wish you all the same!!

A quiet one here. My neighbors, who have no children, invited my boys to spend the night - their 12 y/o nephew, who lives in Denver and comes to visit a couple times a year and has befriended my sons, was visiting. Dh bought lobsters and filet mignon for our daughters and us to ring in the new year. My oldest, 13 y/o, remarked that it was weird not having the boys home, and then despite the fact that they seem to fight all the time, said, "I'm glad there are four kids in our family - it's too quiet and lonely w/o them!" To which my 7 y/o dd responded, "I wish I were an only child." LOL

So we had dinner, dh made a fire, I watched a movie with my 7 y/o who eventually fell asleep on the couch. Older dd went downstairs to watch the New Years Eve programming. Dh went up to bed as we'd had a late night on Sunday night with friends. I woke up my 7 y/o just before midnight, then my daughters and I rang in the new year together and watched some of the fireworks going on outside before heading up to bed.

Some years we get together with friends, but I was happy to stay home this year.

Hope everyone has a blessed and healthy New Year.

Both of us fell asleep before midnight. Oh well. Despite that, I slept in late because it was dreary and missed Zumba.

We made roasted duck, brussel sprouts, and acorn squash with Pinot Noir. Things were very hectic and I forgot to take pictures.

Today we will probably take down the tree because tomorrow is trash day, and they will start picking up the trees. It has been up for over a month. This tree is very good in that it dropped very few needles.

Have a wonderful New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Our eve was quiet and lovely, but we were in bed before midnight-trying to get back on schedule before school tomorrow morning. Good plan, but then the fireworks freaked out one of the dogs (anything that sounds like gunfire or thunder causes him great distress) so I was up from about midnight until 12:45 letting the other one out and soothing her wacko son who even got in bed for about five minutes which they normally never like to do. Needless to say, I slept in until 8:30!

Now, both are outside having a playdate with DS's pup. Good way to start the new year.

I wish you all a wonderful year.

We had a fun, annual gathering. For the past 20+ years the same friends (4 couples) have gathered to bring in the New Year. We rotate among homes. This year we had an extra couple who joined us.

Started the evening with a light soup supper and then moved on to play the Newlywed Game and a version of "Slogans and Jingles". We're all couples in our mid-to-upper 50's married an average 30-35 years each so it was interesting. I'd found some Newlywed questions online that were funny yet revealing. And after that we laughed our way through a Slogans and Jingles game. Again, just a freebie thing I found online. Part of the fun was singing the Jingles. Two of the gals were fantastic jingle singers and could remember practically all of them- we were impressed! Even the guys joined in singing -noone was inhibited (maybe it was the Vodka slushes and bottle of wine on the table). The evening ended with strawberry cheesecake. We started around 7:30, ended around 1AM. Tired but memorable.

Happy New Year to all!

We flew back home after a week traveling (for fun) in Texas with our teens so we were glad to be nesting on New Year's Eve.This is the first year in a long time that DH and I have NOT dressed up and gone out to a restaurant. He offered but I knew we'd be sick of eating out after being away.

I had prepared and frozen a whole dinner (salmon, rice, vegetables) before we left which made it easy to pull off a nice evening. DH bought a very good bottle of champagne so we started the evening sitting in front of the fire, listening to Handel's Messiah, and eating cocktail shrimp. Then we ate dinner.

My daughter and I opened a gift wrapped box of chocolates and watched a really dumb chick flick. Our town does fireworks that are visible from our family room window, so we watched those too. By 10 pm-ish I was in bed with a stack of newspapers that came while we were away. My son went out with some friends. I have no idea what time DH came to bed but apparently we had a conversation.

This afternoon we had a long hike in a nearby state forest. Later on we will have an early dinner with friends, tomorrow is a school day.

We had a lot of fun at a NYE party, with about 6 or so couples, and all our children. We have a group of friends we hang out with all the time. Friend's had a karaoke (sp?) machine set up, and the kids started off (SO FUN!) and a couple of adults joined in later. Played games and the kids had sparklers and other fun stuff to do. Lots of drink and food for some of the adults, but, kept it PG kid-friendly. We all agreed it was even more fun with the kids!

Happy New Year to all!

We haven't celebrated NYE in many years. DH has to go to bed early so he can get up before dawn to do a Christmas Bird Count on New Year's Day. I used to do the counts too but decided going out into the dark in, sometimes, sub-zero temps was really not my thing. I generally don't stay up until midnight either. He made us a nice pork roast dinner last night and tonight I'll have dinner ready for him when drags himself home.

DH bought us our fave burgers & fries and then we had ice cream while watching American Graffiti. He went to bed around 10 and I was finishing up playing a game on my laptop when the first fireworks went off.

Our girl Lab, Zelda, is terrified of fireworks or gun shots, so she tried to get on my lap. But I had my lap top AND a cat on me, and another dog lying next to me on the couch. So she tried to climb up onto the back of the couch so she could lay on my head. This was about 10:45. I guess she wasn't comforted enough so she went to the bedroom and laid on top of DH, quivering.

When I went to bed, I tried to pull her off, but she played dead dog and wouldn't move, so I gave up and laid down next to her. It's not easy to wrestle an 80 pound dog!

We had fondue, shared some wine and fell asleep before midnight. I think I live on East Coast time.

We stay home on New Years Eve. This year DS was home on leave from the Army and DD was home from college. DS headed off to a hotel in town for a party with friends. DD, DH and I grilled out steaks. I made a special favorite potato recipe and Caesar salad. We had a great wine to go with it. For dessert I made our favorite, Winter Spiced Molten Lava Cakes with Rum-Ginger ice cream. Afterwards DH started a fire in the family room fireplace and we watched a Netflix movie. Just before midnight we switched over to the Rockin NYE. I prefer Italian Prosecco to champagne, so we popped a bottle of that at midnight. Went to bed soon afterwards.

Yesterday I made my homemade Posole, which is a very traditional New Mexican NYE or NYD meal. We'll have that along with tamales today for dinner. Yumm!

Wishing you all a very Happy New Years!!!
Lynn

This post was edited by lynninnewmexico on Tue, Jan 1, 13 at 23:48

We had a dinner party before DH and his band played at a local club. I made tenderloin roast, lobster m&c, collard greens, tamales, rolls and baked fudge pudding with homemade ice cream. After dinner we had pomegranate champagne cocktails then went to the club and I proceeded to get hammered along with a couple of girlfriends. Luckily, we have spouses sweet enough to abstained so we could have some fun.

Got back home at 3am, stayed up talking and laughing until 6am. Two couples stayed the night, we woke around noon, ate some quiche and fruit before everybody headed back home. It's a little after 4pm right now and I'm going back to bed.

Anyway, had a great time and more than ready for 2013 to commence!

I want to party with Kellyeng-- and then have posole with Lynn the day after! Seriously, you all really know how to kick off a new year.

My best to all!!

It's fun to hear about everyone's fun. Dh and I opened a new business at a ski resort last week, so we worked every day, including Christmas. It was very stressful and hectic. Our good friends hosted a gathering last night and it was so nice to be with friends. I had one too many drinks and not enough food, so I didn't make it until midnight. Feeling blessed even though I'm an exhausted mess.

Beth P.

Hubs and I had a quiet evening at home. Eldest DD was out at a friends and youngest DD had a friend sleep over. We watched a very nice tribute to Dick Clark, celebrated East Coast NYE (we are on the West Coast), and went to bed soon after. It was out 24th wedding anniversary.

Happy New Year, everyone.

The past two days have been a Football haze. What wasn't watched was recorded and anything else in the world will be noted after next Monday. Food was unremarkable, although plentiful ( I cook all the time) and the weather has been perfect for viewing: very rainy.

Oh pesky. I Loved your New Years Eve"tail" most of all ! We had brunch here with close friends and went to an " east coast new years eve" party. Watched the ball drop here in Ca at nine, and home by ten...... In time to cuddle with our scaredy pup!
I don't post a lot these days, but have been here all this time reading and appreciating , with affection, all of you so very much. Wishing you joy, health and all good things for 2013
Virtual hugs,
Marti(aka leahcate)

I consider NYE to be just another cold, winter night. My new year starts on my birthday, when I finish one year and begin another.

I still had family in town so we had dinner here, just like every other night since Dec 19th when the first of them arrived, and we were all in bed before midnight, just like every other night since Dec 19th. The only concession to it being a special occasion was one sister brought shrimp cocktail.

We did nothing, went to bed early. But that's because we're still a bit strung out. We partied hard at our son's wedding on Saturday -- haven't danced like that since college days, in fact we went a little wild. So fun! a beautiful wedding and an energetic reception afterwards with our favorite people and some great new acquaintances. LynneinNM, we were in a sea of delicious, cold prosecco. Also there was the beautiful drive to and from Virginia, 6 hours both ways. I love the scenery in the Eastern U.S.

Very Merry Happy New Year to everyone! Hope 2013 is a healthy & happy time for you.

My two sons (20 and 18) and I ended up spending NYE in NYC. We were supposed to fly to see family in Massachusetts but when our flight was cancelled on Thursday we decided to just drive there and spend NYE in NY on our way back to Virginia. We booked a hotel near Times Square and got to see the ball drop, tho not from the middle of Times Square. We were able to catch sight of the ball from 42nd street with a bunch of other people. It was fun. When we arrived at our hotel at 9 a.m. on NYE, there were already people in Times Square so we knew we would not be watching from there. We had a lot of fun. Went to SoHo, Central Park, etc.

Had a lovely time visiting friends a couple hours away. There's an annual NYE symphony event in their town (that DH's cousin plays in) and we've attended that the last couple years. So we have quiet dinner at friends home (she is a great cook), then symphony, then stay up and chat until midnight or beyond. We are thinking we might have a new tradition in the works.

Ours was utterly quiet, although not unpleasant :). Both kids were off doing their own NYE celebration so the house was nice and calm. We ate dinner, chatted, then he went to sleep early and I read for awhile. Boring? Maybe but also a moment to cherish being secure in our lives and with so much for which to be grateful.

Actually, our New Year's reminds me of the lyrics to one of my favorite Carly Simon songs, Misfit:

There are plenty of late nights
If you want to stay up for them
You'll just want to find yourself a friend
And tie a couple on in a night spot
Draw pictures of your soul, win the jackpot
Pour tears in your beer
It's hip to be miserable when you're young and intellectual
In a bit you'll admit you're a misfit

Come on home with me
We'll turn on the TV
About 10 o'clock we'll turn off the light
Not every man was born to stay up late at night

There are plenty of boats to catch
If you notice all the sails in the wind
But you better look hard my friend
In case you catch a ride on the wrong one
In the distance is the one you belong on
Oh the water is wide
It's hip to be miserable when you're young and intellectual
In a bit you'll admit you're a misfit

Come on home with me
We'll sit under a tree
And if you get the itch
I'll supply the scratch
Not every man was born with a boat to catch

It's hip to be miserable when you are young and intellectual
In a bit you'll admit you're a misfit
A misfit

As much as I would have loved to party it up with friends and usher out 2012 because I've never been so happy to see one year end, I was working. And it was a doozie. Let's just say there were a lot of people getting in their tax deductions with their scheduled c-sections. But I work with a fabulous group of nurses and we made the best of it ringing in 2013.

I'm with you, polly, 2012 sucked big time! Glad to see the New Year and determined that it will be better! I got the night off work (also a nurse) due to over staffing and fortunately, senority paid off!
DS went out to party and DH and I stayed in with good food, good wine and Les Miz CD!
Happy New Year!