New Years Eve 2021

 As per tradition, our family hosted a New Year's Eve party for our extended family. We love this excuse to gather and to close out the calendar year in style! We get together in the evening and open a series of bags, one at a time, that contain activities for us to do. One of the first activity bags directed us to play a game of Careers. Uncle Jon is the one that introduced this game to our family, so he was the leader. The kids always love this guessing game!

Jon, aka PhDJ, also led the family in a little dance party. Everyone gathered, from the youngest to the oldest, was able to join in with Uncle Jon's great dance moves.

All of the kids paired up with an adult to complete a Mad Libs story. When done, each group shared the silly story aloud. We definitely got a lot of laughs out of these crazy stories!

Then, our active crew played a game of indoor laser tag.

One of my favorite New Year's traditions is having each family share photo memories from their year and highlight some of God's blessings over the past year. In all things, God has truly been so good!

Since many of the kids in the family are still fairly young, we adjust the timing of the evening a bit and have our New Year's countdown closer to 9:00, rather than midnight. It works quite well! :) Just before our countdown, then, we poured a glass of sparkling cider for everyone. Grandpa said a prayer with the family, and Papa led us in a toast.

Cheers to 2022!!

And then it was time for our countdown. The balloon drop was ready to go!

I found a minute-long countdown timer on youtube that we used.

Once the clock hit zero, everyone celebrated and blew into their noisemakers. Isaiah was our cord-puller this year for the balloon drop.

We are thankful for God's gift of family and for our Savior's presence and constancy throughout the years!