Happy New Year – January 1st

New Years Eve Fun

Whether you and your family view New Year’s Eve as a time for reflection or as an opportunity to have a huge party, it is a date steeped deep in traditions. This year, invite your clan to start a new first night ritual. Here are some ideas to get your creativity started:

1: Make and frame a photo collage of the past year’s events….. A poster sized frame can be obtained and everyone can have a hand in helping create a masterpiece to display all year around in an entryway, hallway or nook.

2: Deliver a plate of home made goodies to a neighbor… a great time to say hello and to keep up with current happenings in each home so that the other has ideas of what is happening at each others homes…. safety is always a big concern for all of us and if a neighbor knows some of what is happening in your home they know what to look for and vise-versa.

3:Make something old – new again: glue images cut from your old postcards/Holiday cards your family received onto postcard-sized pieces of posterboard or index cards, add a wish for the new year…. and mail them off to those you love.

4:Cover they floor with bubble wrap…. and have the family stomp their way into a new year…. while you start off that resolution to be more energetic and shed the extra pounds.

New Years Noise Maker

Paper Fortune Cookies

During the 15-day celebration of Chinese New Year, children and adults alike will take part in dances, feasts, and parades, all meant to clear the way for a happy and prosperous year ahead. One tradition families enjoy is writing and displaying chun lian, simple expressions of wishes for good fortune in the coming year. Your own well-wishers can easily create these colorful, fortune-filled paper cookies for their friends and family.

Materials
  • Paper
  • Paper cupcake baking liners
  • Markers
  • Craft glue
Instructions
  1. To make a batch, first help your child write a host of fortunes on small slips of paper.
  2. For each one, fold a paper cupcake baking liner as shown, slip the note inside, and apply a dot of craft glue to the bottom of the liner to secure it in place.

Sock Toss

Here is a fun game that puts those old sock to good use – especially the ones whose mates have long since disappeared to good use…. and its more than simple to get started. First fill each sock with about a cup of sand or dirt – you will need 3 socks per player. Use rocks to form two 2-foot circles about 10 feet apart each with a single rock in the center. Players take turns at one ring tossing the socks to the other ring. They get 5 points for each sock they land inside the ring, 10 if the sock lands resting against the center rock. First player to fifty wins the game!