New Years Eve Part 4: Alchohol

Now, I really don't believe every party should have alcohol. I'm also a form supporter of the idea that you don't have to be intoxicated to have a good time. However, I do enjoy a little drink every now and then. That's very, very rarely mind you- it's hard for me to be kid free and I don't ever drink around my kids. Not even in the slightest. It seems that a lot of people do drink in some form at New Year's Eve celebrations. I thought I would go over some of the recipes here for your tamer drinks, nothing too hard or anything with too high of an alcohol content.

The Jello Mold:


This I got from the Jelly Shot Test Kitchen.  They basically layer alcohol infused jello in a bundt pan, one layer at a time and chill in the fridge. Now, I've done jello layers before and let me make sure you take note of this. Take your time with these! Let each layer solidify before adding the next one or it just won't be as pretty as this one!
Here's the basic recipe for Jello shots:

• 3 oz Jell-O or other gelatin (any flavor)
• 6 oz water
• 6 oz vodka (or other distilled spirit)

1. Pour gelatin into a bowl.
2. Add boiling water, stirring until the gelatin is dissolved.
3. Stir in liquor. Make sure it's not too hot when you do this.
4. Refrigerate until cool.
5. Pour into shot glasses, molds, or a baking pan for a sheet of Jell-O to cut up once set. Tip: The small, plastic shot cups are perfect because the drinker can just squeeze the shot out.
6. Refrigerate until the liquid sets. (At least 2 hours, but overnight refrigeration is recommended)
7. Serve cold.

*****Now, the above recipe is a tad strong on the alcohol content, you can adjust it with more or less****

Drunken Gummy Bears:



Did you know that gummy bears will soak up alcohol? No? Well now you do. So do gummy worms but I somehow find these less appealing. They also swell in size, as portrayed in the above picture. Drunken gummy bears are also a lot easier to make than jello shots. For this project, you'll need a glass bowl, with a lid if you have one. Fill the bowl halfway with gummy bears and then pour vodka over the top of the gummy bears, just barely covering them. You don't want to use too much vodka or they will disintegrate. Due to their size, gummy bears can only hold so much alcohol. Let them sit in the fridge over night. When you pull them out the next day you'll be able to see how much they soaked up. Drain the left overs and drink or do whatever you'd like with it.

Champagne:

Champagne tends to be a classic at New Years parties, as does wine. Both can be picked up at any store that sells liquor and spirits. Just stop by and ask the attendant for any suggestions on what to buy. Don't be afraid to ask, it's their job- they will know what to do.

Beer:

Beer is pretty common at parties these days and it comes in all shapes and forms. You can get all kinds of different beers with different flavors. Beer tends not to be that strong of an alcohol as long as you don't consume too many. Beer is also a really cheap alternative when compared to hard liquor and almost everyone that drinks will have a beer. Some people won't drink beer but odds are the same store you purchase the beer at will also have some form of wine cooler or other alcohol like the flavored Smirnoff's and the Jack Daniel's hometown punch.


As always, drink in moderation. Do not drink and drive. Do not serve alcohol to minors and please don't serve the jello shots or drunken gummy bears around children- it's an accident waiting to happen and way too appealing to our younger generations.

New Years Eve Party Part 3: the Games!

No party is complete without some fun! There are lots of fun games you could play for New Years Eve, but I usually don't see them circulating around. So I found some ideas after a little research and I'm letting you know about the best of them.

Resolution:

The more people participating in this game the better. Basically everyone at the party takes a strip of paper and writes down the funniest/craziest/strangest New Year resolution they can think of. Fold up the piece of paper and put it in a hat, bowl, or whatever you have laying around. Then you take the hat, mix up all the resolutions, and go around pulling one back out for everyone. Then each player gets to open up the resolution and read it out loud to the group. The player can also try to guess which other player came up with that particular resolution. Some resolution ideas can include:

• I will think of some better excuses to call into work
• I will do less laundry and use more deodorant.
• I will try to conserve more water by taking less baths.
• I will not tell the same story at every get together.
• I will stop talking on my cell phone while using the bathroom.

You see how fun this could get, don't you? There could definitely be a lot of laughs with this one. Especially when grandma gets the laundry one and has to read it out loud :)

Charades of the Past:

For this game you will separate your group into smaller groups of twos and threes. People could also play this by themselves, depending on the event. Have a bag/basket/bowl ready with several events from the previous year and have each team/person draw and event. You could have a large paper drawing pad and marker set aside to use as well. Then, it's just like playing charades. Each team/person must convey the event for the previous year without saying a word. Make sure you use events that were big enough everyone or at least the majority would be able to figure it out. You could take it a step further if you wanted and hand out a prize to the team/person who guesses the most events.

True or False:

Write down each persons name at the party and beside each one of their names write down several "facts" try to make all the facts strange but have the strangest fact be the truth and the others all be false. For example, my mother hates cheese. I think this is weird. I have a friend who won't eat anything on his plate if even one thing has touched mustard. I have another friend who no one would ever guess has a tattoo. Have each guest write down a T next to the fact they think is the real one. Then, when everyone has voted sit down and go over the paper letting them know which facts were actually true. This could get really fun as long as you keep all the "facts" nice and don't tell any thing they don't want everyone else knowing.

Ping Pong Shake:

This game is a blast! All you need are some ping pong balls, a Kleenex box (empty) and some rubber bands or string. Poke a hole in roughly the same places on each square end of your Kleenex box and thread through your string or rubber bands and tape it down securely to the inside. Now, put several (3 or 4) ping pong balls in the Kleenex box and tie around a persons waist with the box in the back. The bottom of the Kleenex box should be against their clothing, the opening facing out. The box should rest on their butt. Make sure it's tied securely. Now the person wearing the box must shake their hips and butt and try to get all of the ping pong balls out. Take turns going around each player and time to see who can get all the balls out the fastest. This is guaranteed a laugh!

Is the New Year Here Yet? Part 2 for this Holiday!

I couldn't leave you guys with just one post about a New Years Eve party! These types of parties can be fun and a great way to spend time with friends. We covered decorations and food in the last post, but there are still so many possibilities. What about noise makers? Oriental Trading  sells lots of New Years party supplies including party poppers 10$ for a dozen, assorted noise makers at 19$ for 50, and the paper blowouts 8$ for 72 and the list goes on and on and on. You can also make these at home if you'd like a New Years type craft to do with your kids.

Here's one type of noise maker you can make yourself and have a lot of fun doing it!

Here's what you'll need:

• a small bag of noisemakers. OT sells them as "whizzers" and you get 72 for 6.25!
• double sided tape or elmers glue
• colorful paper (maybe some left over wrapping paper from Christmas?)
• streamers or pieces of ribon (left over tinsel would work awesome)
• scissors

Directions:

• First you'll want to roll your paper into cone shapes. I honestly couldn't think of a way to describe this but it would look something like a party hat with an open end. Here's a template that I got from here and she got it from Martha. We're not going to fold this though, hers is used for a different project. I like this one because of the scalloped edges. It just adds something to it for me :)

• Be careful when rolling your cones as you want the small end to be large enough to fit your whizzers into, tightly.
• Now that you have the perfect size attach your whizzers to the smaller end with glue or tape
• Fold your sides (the flat ones) around to meet each other, again making sure that the paper wraps snugly around the whizzers, and glue or tape the seam down so that you have your basic shape.
• After letting your noisemakers dry take your streamers, ribbon or whatever you'd like and glue or tape them around the circumfrence of the larger end of your noise maker. The streamers/ribbon/whatever should be hanging out of them and then just blow into the end with the whizzer and you're done!

They should end up looking something like this:


The same concept can be applied to party hats, they're just a paper cone only the tinsel would be applied to the smaller end of the hat. Stretchy elastic can be tied onto the larger ends with slack (through holes made with a basic hole punch) to hold onto peoples heads. Both of these projects are also great for birthday parties!

Happy New Year!

I feel that I really missed out on my chance to get out all my Christmas decor and craft ideas so, I have decided I'm really going to go all out with New Years. Not everone celebrates New Years but some people do and it's really a great idea. I think that some people don't like to celebrate it because they don't drink and don't want to. That's ok, it's your party, you don't have to serve something you're not going to consume. These are the rules with being a host(ess) in my opinion: Do what you want. It's your venue, your money, your work, your everything so do what you want. If they don't like it, they can find the way out just as quickly as they found the way in, right? Who really gets offended by what's served or not served at a party anyway? If you do... you need to see a therapist about your control issues. Rambling again? Ok...moving on...

Most people want to decorate for their New Years Eve party, but they don't always have a lot of money or any inspiration. I've found that New Years is on my list of parties that not very many people come up with creative ideas for. I have searched and searched however and have found a few.

Decorations:

First of all let me say stop it to the people using gold, green and purple. Just stop it, now. Those are Mardi Gras traditional colors. Most people tend to decorate in gold and silver, black and white, or any mixture. There are several popular themes that I've seen- mainly clocks and numbers. Here are some templates for clock faces or you can copy an image from Google images (search: clock face template and copy and paste the one you want). You can also group dollar store (or thrift store!!!!) clocks as centerpieces and use them as gifts at the end of the party. Baloons and streamers are also a popular decoration as they're cheap and very versatile. Sparklers can be bought online here and used in a lot of places with decorations. Really cheap decorations can also be purchased at www.orientaltrading.com .
 




Foods:

There are lots of foods you can use to celebrate that still have a New Years Eve kind of theme. Fortune cookies are very popular for this particular celebration and can be bought cheaply at Wal-Mart. You can dress these up by dipping them in almond bark and then candy if you'd like. I've also seen clock cakes, which are just your basic cake with a clock face iced on the top. Cookies can be decorated the same way. If you are serving alcohol you might want to keep the food to a minimum, serving just appetizers which are highly appropriate in this type of social gathering anyway. Dollar stores sell packets of several champagne glasses for dirt cheap and these can be filled with anything. If you're using metalics fill them with Hershey's kisses. Use a sharpie or permanant marker to draw numbers on the outside of the glasses, like the ball drop countdown. Coincidentally, cupcakes look amazing on top of candies and fit well in those glasses- especially with an added spark from sparklers in the cupcakes. As far as drinks go you can serve anything you'd like. If you want to give the look of serving alcohol you can use sparkling juices. Fill a galvanized tub with ice and stick in several bottles of sparkling juices and ciders.


Lucky Food:

If you really want to have fun with your food you can go all out and serve traditional "lucky foods"

• Ring shaped cakes are on the list as they represent how the year has come full circle. Donuts would work well here.
• Dumplings- the asian kind. They represent the currency china used to use and represent hope for a good fiscal year.
• Fish- In China, a whole steamed fish symbolizes a long and healthy life and oysters and prawns are lucky, too. In Poland, one serves pickled herring at midnight; in Italy, dried salt cod stars in a variety of holiday dishes; and in Germany, you simply can't celebrate the day without noshing on carp, which often appears in a stew. Germans take it one step further, though — many tuck a few carp scales into their wallets afterward to keep from running out of money in the following year.
• Grapes are popular in Spain. You're apparently supposed to pop one in your mouth with each chime for luck.
• I saved my favorite for last black eyed peas and collard greens. I'm from the south and dishes like Hoppin' John are popular. There are also ways to make Hoppin' John with the greens in a crock pot.

So take a second thought about throwing a New Years party. I hope I was able to give you some inspiration and have a great day!