NYE: Hole Up, Giggle, and Cuddle with Your Kids

A blogger that I follow posted a link to an article about the babysitter wars. Click to read it or trust my synopsis: babysitters expect to get paid more on New Year's Eve - sometimes twice their usual rate - and people actually poach sitters from friends or pick up random sitters at the mall. The piece goes on to offer helpful hints for procuring sitters for new years, including sharing a sitter, hosting the party at your house, or just resigning yourself to paying through the nose. Really?!?

Okay, I'm on my soapbox here. But I have a suggestion.

If you are a parent, seriously consider 

spending New Year's Eve with who should be 

the most important people to you. 

Your spouse. And your kids. 

New Year's Eve is a celebration of the year that's passed - all the challenges and triumphs; it's a time to reflect. Midnight is the beginning of a new year, a fresh start. Why would you spend that away from your family? I like drinking wine and noshing on appetizers with my friends as much as anyone else, but that can happen on any of the other 364 nights of the year. That can happen on my birthday, my husband's birthday, our friends' birthdays. Heck, I don't even need a reason to meet a friend for a drink or eats. But, for me, ringing in the new year is something intimate. It's a time to hole up, giggle, cuddle, and remember why you start and end each day with these people. They're yours.

Click here for what we did last year. Family fun-shenanigans with some traditions from around the world.

This year, we'll be listening to some taiko drums downtown in the afternoon, dining at a favorite restaurant, heading home for some internationally-inspired New Year's desserts, playing board games, toasting with bubbles, and smooching as the clock strikes twelve.

This was our toast from last year. We all made it to midnight. We'll be there again in a few days. Same couch. Same time.