I am excited to ring in a new year this evening. Every year on New Year's Eve, I like to spend the day getting the house in order, tidying up some of the Christmas messes that still linger, and getting my house nice so I can start the new year off with a tidy home.
I am also packing away some of the Christmas decor, not all of it, but some, so we can make that transition back into our everyday decor. I had to take a picture of the elves in my office, they look like they are marching off somewhere, maybe back to the North Pole? I have been collecting these cast iron elves from CB2.com a Crate and Barrel Company for the last few years, I just love all the new colors they keep bringing out.
Besides tidying, I have cooked up some fun treats for our New Years Celebration.
We are having Bacon Wrapped Dates- I kept seeing these and they looked so yummy, I have sampled a few and they are very tasty. I am keeping it simple, just a plain whole date, wrapped with half a piece of bacon, and baked on a cooling rack set into a baking pan, at 350 F. until bacon is crisp.
We are also having a crescent wrapped baked brie served with apples and grapes and little toasts made from sliced baguette. I found the recipe at Pillsbury's website - Crescent-Wrapped Brie , I took the advice of a comment on the recipe to add a few tablespoons of brown sugar and some little bits of sliced butter along with some dried cranberries to the top of the brie before wrapping it. It is cooling and I can't wait to try it.
New years eve is the perfect time to play some fun family games - we love Apples to Apples and one of my favorite family games Blokus. Apples to Apples is fun for a crowd and gets people laughing, and Blockus is a four player strategy game, very easy to learn and play, I would highly recommend Blokus. We also like to pull out classics like Yahtzee and Clue.
Here are my Amazon affiliate links for these games.
Then we toast the new year with sparkling cider, this year we will be toasting in my favorite green goblets that I thrifted years ago, I love these goblets.
I always enjoy starting a new year! I hope everyone has a wonderful evening, and a very Happy New Year!!
Happy New Year, April! Looks like you had a fun time. I'll have to look into the games you mentioned.When the family gets together we love to play board games. We had to stop playing Smarty Party because no one could ever beat Jamie. He even knows what the moons are called on all the different planets! May this be the best year yet for you and yours!
ReplyDeleteBlwyddyn Newydd Dda (Happy New Year) from Wales! I do like the look of that Crescent baked brie! How lovely to see good, old fashioned board games. Such fun and laughter is shared that simply cannot be with even the most interactive technology. I do also like those dark green goblets you so cannily thrifted! Happy New Year 2012!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, April!! Sounds like you had a great night planned.
ReplyDeleteJane~ We used to play Trivial Pursuit as a family and it was always very hard to beat my mother and grandmother, we would also play along with Jeopardy after dinner almost every weeknight when I was a teenager, very fun to see who could answer first. I will have to look in to the Smarty Pants game you mentioned that sounds like fun too.
ReplyDeleteDeborah~ Thanks for the Happy New Year from Wales, Happy New Year to you and yours as well. The Crescent wrapped Brie was very good. I agree, old fashioned board games are very fun, much more interactive between the family than most electronic games.
Carrie~ We had a very fun New Years, quiet family celebrations are my favorite. :)
Thanks for all of your comments, and Happy First day of 2012!!