Trying to decide between an Italian dish (pasta and meatballs) or rib eye steaks we have (it’s pouring rain outside so not the best night to cook on the grill). Still have plenty of Christmas cookies left so will munch some of those.
H will watch football….I will watch either the holiday movie I started last night or maybe start Ted Lasso or The Morning Show. Neither of us will even try to be up at midnight!!!
Hoping that there aren’t too many fireworks to freak the dog out at midnight……
We were thinking about going to D and SIL’s house (they are having a few friends over and invited us) but H has a cold and doesn’t really feel up to it. So I am cooking a dinner H likes (it’s very simple) and he will watch football (Go Pack Go). We will probably have a bit of sparking wine and be in bed at 10 or whenever the game ends.
We went to Ruth’s Chris last night to celebrate early! Best steak ever. Tonight doing nothing, don’t even know what we’re watching. We will finish the last of the desserts though, before starting our diets!
Friends are camping in their motor home on the bay. We are going there for dinner and we will watch Sea World fireworks at 9pm and toast east coast midnight and then head home.
Going out to eat sushi and then will camp on the balcony with a bottle of Mumm to ring in every US New Year. Just a sip or two and then put the glass down until the next hour - to avoid getting plastered!
We do New Year’s Day food — black eyed peas, collard greens, grits, and there are usually biscuits and eggs too. We have never done any special meals for NYE although we have been to some parties. It’ll just be at home this year.
We’re going to the same party we’ve gone to for the last 22 years. We look forward to it all year. It’s hosted by one of my husband’s former bandmates and almost all the guests were bandmates of the host at one time. There are also some college friends of the host and there’s been a couple of neighbors or friends of the family that have dropped in from time to time. There are usually around 20 people from all over the country. The night starts with a lobster dinner. The guitars come out about 10 pm. We watch the ball drop and then, because we are all old, we head home around 12:30. There are people there that I met at this party 22 years ago (my husband has been going even longer) that I only see this one night of the year but I consider them good friends and can’t wait to catch up.
The host’s wife had heart surgery a few months ago, so we are going to do potluck appetizers and desserts instead this year. I made deviled eggs, a roasted sweet potato salad (with BACON. It’s requested at any potluck we attend), and a sushi cracker thing I saw on TikTok (meh… I wouldn’t make it again). I am gluten and dairy free so always try to bring things I can make a dinner of. Two of the other guests are also GF, so I know they are taken care of as well.
I’m making jalapeño popovers to take to the house next door that is the (buffet) starting point of a community NYE cocktail crawl ending with dessert and champagne at a house at the end of our street where the community fireworks can be clearly viewed.
We usually skip NYE, but the crawl is along our block, so we’re going along until we tire out. We don’t want to be in bad shape for the Rose Bowl watch party at our house tomorrow. GO BLUE!
When the kids were young we would do a fortune cake. Write a funny fortune (“People Magazine names you ‘Sexiest Man Alive!’”) on a small piece of paper, cover in foil, attach curly ribbon, cut a slit in a frosted cake, push fortune in. If you have a bunch of people, the sides of the cake are covered in multicolored curly ribbon. Everyone pulls out their fortune for the year, and eats cake!
Now that they are in college or graduated, we will be home, eating roasted delicata squash with pears and chicken meatballs, and drinking sparkling wine. And going to bed well before midnight!
