Need some last minute, easy activities for a family New Year’s Eve party?  I thought of one (the lights, camera, action one) and found two on the Family Fun site.  Hope these help you in your party planning.  (You might be interested in my Celebrate New Year’s Eve with Grandchildren that I wrote last year.)

Lights, Camera, Action. If you have a video camera, divide family members into teams and give them 15 minutes to write a script for a skit.  Give them a few minutes to practice it.  Then, have the group ‘perform’ in front of the others and film it with your video camera.  After each group has been filmed, hook your camera up to your TV and watch the skits.  Everybody will love watching themselves in their Oscar winning performance!

From Family Fun
Midnight Balloon Shower — directions on how to make a balloon drop for your party.
Around the Clock — ideas for a clock theme party. (I think grandchildren would like the idea of painting their face white and then drawing on black clock hands.)

Hope you have a great time ringing in the new year!

(Since my husband is on call and our friends are partying in with their own families, we’ll be spending a quiet time at home.  By ourselves.  ROCKIN’ OUT WITH THE BEATLES’ ROCK BAND!  Can’t get any better than that . . .)

If you are having a family party on New Year’s Eve, you’ll probably want to have something to drink.  And have I got a great recipe for you!  It’s called Punch.  (Punch.  You’d think that who ever came up with this recipe could come up with a clever title for it, too.  But no.  Just plain and simple — Punch.)

The almond extract gives it a delightful flavor.  Something that you’re not quit expecting.  This is always a hit when I fix it and I think your grandchildren will love it.  Not too sweet.  Not too carbonated.

You’ll need a big punch bowl to serve this in because it makes quite a lot of punch.  (Sometimes I put in a 3 liter bottle of Sprite if I’m going to have lots of family members at the party.)   Here’s the recipe.

Punch
10 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 small can frozen orange juice (thawed)
1 small can frozen lemonade (thawed)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 liter bottle of Sprite

Add the sugar to the water and stir till sugar is dissolved.  And remaining ingredients.  (You might want to use ice cubes as part of the water so that the punch will be cold.)

Enjoy!

Are you having a party with your family on New Year’s Eve? Need more sugar in your diet a quick ‘n easy treat? (I know I should be promoting healthy foods, but it’s the holidays!) I recently came across this recipe that I think sounds absolutely divine — chocolate, caramels, and pecans — like turtle candy.  It’s called Rolo Candy Treats.   Sure to be a crowd pleaser.  Here’s the recipe.

Rolo Candy Treats
50 small pretzel twists
50 pieces Rollo candy
50 pieces whole pecans

Place pretzel pieces on a baking sheet.  Place one Rollo candy on each pretzel.  Place pan in a warm oven (250 degrees) to let the candy barely melt on top of the pretzel.  Remove pan from oven and press a pecan on top.  Let cool and harden.  Yum!

I’m sure your grandchildren’s parents (aka your children) won’t mind if you serve your grandchildren such sugar-laden treats. After all, isn’t that what grandmothering is all about?

Will you have the opportunity to spend New Year’s Eve with your grandchildren?  This could be a great opportunity to have lots of FUN!!!

This is a time to break out of your ‘but-grandmothers-don’t-do-that-kind-of-thing’ attitude.  Be zany!  Be creative!  Be outta this world!

Lest you are at a loss for ideas of what to do, here are a few to jump start your thinking.  (And, make sure you have plenty of crepe paper streamers, balloons, noise makers, and confetti).  As always, adapt and modify your activities according to the ages of your grandchildren.

• For young grandchildren, move the clock ahead a couple of hours.  This way, they can celebrate the ringing in of the New Year but still get to bed before midnight (and before they are too tired and cranky).
• Get glow in the dark sticks to wave outside at midnight. (Fun for ANY age!)
• Have a dress up party with fun clothes, hats, tiaras, jewelry, cowboy boots, whatever.  Kids love to dress up and doing it only on Halloween just isn’t quite often enough for their dress-up souls.  Make sure you and Grandpa dress up, too!
• Have a pajama parade at midnight with your grandchildren wearing the new pajamas they got at Christmas.  (If they didn’t get new ones, maybe you could give them some and have all the more reason to parade!)  If you can, find fun masks for them to wear (like the picture above) as they parade around.
• Do the Bubble Wrap Stomp.  Buy sheets of bubble wrap used for packing.  At midnight, put on some lively music, put the bubble wrap on the floor, and stomp away.
• Make your own noise makers by putting dried beans or rice in cans or cardboard tubes or empty pop bottles and decorate the outside of the container.  Shake the containers wildly at midnight.
• Have a Dino-Mite Dance.  Make dinosaur masks for your little mites to wear while doing the Bunny Hop, the Hokey Pokey, the Funky Chicken, The Macarena, the Limbo (how low can Grandma go???).  To get copies of these songs, go to the iTunes store where they cost only 99 cents per song.  Burn them to a CD and then play the songs for your party.  (You can then pull out this CD and dance anytime during the year with your grandchildren!  Yes, Grandpa, even YOU can dance these types of dances with the grandkids!)
• For the granddaughters, have a jewelry making night.  Go to a local craft store and get beads and baubles for them to make bracelets, necklaces, and earrings.
• Have a cheese or chocolate fondue.

Here are some previous activities that I have written about that you could do:

• Play Fox and Geese. This could be a fun challenge if there isn’t much moonlight . . . Wear glow in the dark necklaces made out of the sticks! Then, come in and warm up with hot chocolate and donuts.
• Play Zilch.
• Play Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
• Play the Cup Rythm game.
• Play Panic (a card game).
• Play the Candy Bar game.

Last night we were spontaneous (yes, we are spontaneous on occasions).  We played card games with our neighbors.  They had two games that we hadn’t heard of before:  Category and Wizards.  Teen-aged grandchildren would enjoy playing these games.

What ever you do, may you have fun (and be safe) strengthening your relationship with your grandchildren while playing with them on New Year’s Eve!

Digi-Gram

Grandma Ideas