How to spend New Year's Eve with kids

Life is Good: we are safe & warm!

Well, it is New Year's Eve! Oh, how I love this holiday, just like all of the rest. I love the dressing up and the socializing and the dressing up and the socializing! ; )

This year, we could not find a sitter from our shallow pool of options, so we invited friends over to celebrate at home with us. I had planned a 2013 scavenger hunt, 2013 coloring sheets, "mad libs"-style "what will 2014 be like" questionnaire and more. But alas, pneumonia hit their house and they are stuck at home. With the weather as frosty as it is here in Minnesota (in the negative teens!), a lot of people that I know are hunkering down so that they can ring in the new year without shivering.

I think anyone who knows me a little, knows that I love a party. I love a house full of friends. I love glancing at people I hold dear talking to other people I hold dear. I love smiles beaming and the rumbling of laughter permeating through rooms.

But I am okay with celebrating this holiday more quietly tonight. Because the truth is, wherever my three dudes are is exactly where I want to be. With them, every day is a party and every moment shared is a celebration. Oh, that sounds so cheesy, huh? But it is true, I am exactly where I want to be. I don't need a champagne fountain or a ballroom full of people I don't know. I don't need a small room filled with people I like or a girls' getaway or anything else to make me happy. These three are all I need.

And if you are reading this, this is what I hope for you in the new year. That you will have all that you need, wherever you are planted. I wish for you to have "enough" and know it. I wish for you to have "plenty" and acknowledge it. I wish for you to be satisfied with who you are and what you have, whether those things are tangible or not.

Thank you for reading this little blog of mine. Like me, it is flawed and a work in progress, but always well-intended. I am not big about resolutions, but I do love fresh starts. I have "grand plans" for organization and cooking and slowing down. I have "brilliant ideas" for play and learning and family time. As usual, I have more ideas than I have time. I don't know what is truly in store for 2014, but I know that with the right attitude, it will be one of the best times of our lives. Because right now really is the best time of our life. And one thing you can count on, I will aim to make it pleasant!

We are about to sit down to lobster bisque and I am wearing sequins. That sounds like a good way to say goodbye to 2013 and hello to 2014, if you ask me! Happy new year!

Life is what you make of it, so make it pleasant! And more! 

May your new year be blessed,
Susie