Tradition...TRADITION! (Post 3)

Another holiday tradition that is pretty cool:  The Hardy/Leavitt/Reese family New Year's Eve party. 2012-13 was our 35th year!!  This tradition started when I was ten.  My mom and some of her friends got tired of trying to figure out how to celebrate New Year's Eve every year.  (Do you go out?  If so, who babysits?  Do you stay in? If so, how do you celebrate?  How do you include the kids?  Do you? etc. etc.)  And thus the family party tradition was "born."  Originally, the party was held at a home.  (We alternated between the Hardy/Leavitt/ and Reese homes.)  However, once the "kids" started having kids, the party got big enough that it was moved to the church cultural hall, and the "running" of the party now alternates among the grown kids of the Hardy/Leavitt/ and Reese families.  (Kent and I were in charge last year.)  Although some aspects of the party have changed over the years, some things have NOT changed:

*We always eat dinner and have LOTs of snacks.
*We always play the "present-opening" game.  (Die and a pie-plate are passed around the circle, and party guests who roll a 7 or 11 get to don a hat, scarf, and gloves, and try to open a multiple-layer wrapped gift with a knife and fork before another 7 or 11 is rolled.  The person who finally gets the gift open, gets to keep it.  Things get pret-ty wild.  74 year old Grannie Annie still participates.)
*We always do predictions.  We go around the room and let everyone make predictions for the coming year.  Then we read the predictions the next year before making new ones.  (Kent's standard prediction for about the last 10 years has been a "4-lane highway through Logandale."  I think it's more wishful thinking than anything.  He HATES getting behind someone and/or being tailgated when driving through the valley.)
*We always ALL stay up clear till midnight.  None of this "pretending" several hours earlier for the little kids.  Yes, they do on occasion fall asleep, but most the time, the party is so "happening" that there is too much excitement for sleep.
*We always have a "count down."  (This year sadly without Dick Clark.)
*We always wear hats, throw serpentine, and shake, rattle, and roll noise-makers for a good 15 minutes at midnight.  (My 19-year-old daughter told me this year that "nobody celebrates midnight as good as we do.")
*We always eat banana splits at midnight.  (I remember going to our family party as a teenager-leaving the party to go to the church dance- and then coming BACK to the party AFTER the church dance for banana splits.  Yep, our family party out-lasted the teenagers.)

There are other activities which are usually, but not always, included. Some of which include: An outside game of "luminator" football, various "game shows" (This year we played the Price is Right), Tearing off calendar pages from the past year and burning or shredding them, basketball (hey the cultural hall has a court), and lots of board games and Rook games.  (Come to think of it, Rook should have maybe been included in the "always" section.  The 6 original Hardy/Leavitt/Reese parents are die-hard Rook players.  They get together often (and have done so for years) to play Rook-in fact maybe it was at one of these late-night Rook games where the idea for this party was born.)

Anywho....Happy 2013!!!  (Although the number 13 has me a little worried.  I'm a tad bit superstitious. I just keep telling myself it will be a GREAT year!  It will-right?)

Grannie Annie (my mom)- present-opening game

Luke-Price is Right golf game

Trent-Price is Right cup game

Trent and Luke show their "bids"  (They BOTH made it to the "Showcase Showdown"-How cool is that!?  However, I think much of the "coolness" of the game was lost on them, since I'm not sure either has ever seen the Price-is-Right.  One of the first down-sides I've noted after 17+ years of no TV)

Kay and Kent bring in 2013.  (Two seconds after this photo was taken we were "doused" in serpentine by a slew of pre-teen girls!)