A New Year Celebration

The best way to celebrate welcoming the New Year is with fun family traditions. Here is how we celebrate ~

• Make sure the house is spic-n-span by New Year's Eve.  We used Spic & Span cleaner when I was little. My gramma loved it, as well as Calgon bubble bath, and Geritol! Yes, she is one of a kind!
• We get delicious Chinese food from a local restaurant on New Year's Eve. The Chinese believe in lucky dishes that bring good luck for the new year, which is good enough for us! Plus, our local restaurant makes super delicious dishes! Here are China Highlights. We also make a fun dessert; this year, it's banana pudding, a family favorite. We also prepare lots of activities and games to keep the evening fun. Then, we toast the New Year with Martinelli's sparkling apple juice and some Jameson and Ginger Ale for the adults (ok, for me)!
  

Here are some fun family activities and games that you can print for free.
Or, you can make your own on craft paper.

~ A Look Back
~ New Year's Eve Bingo
~ New Year's Eve Word Puzzle
~ New Year's Eve Charades
~ New Year's Eve Pictionary
~ New Year's Eve Mad Libs
~ New Year's Eve Word Find
~ New Year's Eve Goals (instead of resolutions)

On New Year's Day, we prepare a traditional Texas meal... which, of course, is deeply rooted in our Irish ways. Here is this year's menu:

• Snacks: Gramma's Deviled Eggs & Smoked Salmon with Marie Rose Sauce
• Corned Beef Brisket with Apricot Chutney, Texas Fried Cabbage ~ corned beef and cabbage made with carrots, potatoes, and onions for luck and abundance in the new year.
  
• Beef or pork is the meat of choice because these animals do not scratch in the dirt for their food, unlike chickens. Cabbage is light green, like paper money.
• Black Eyed Peas with Texas Caviar ~ black-eyed peas symbolize coins or wealth because they swell as they cook, symbolizing a swelling pocketbook.
• GOAT Macaroni & Cheese and Texas Sweet Skillet Cornbread ~ both are the color of gold, wishing for wealth in the new year.
• Doctored Lemon Bundt Cake ~ a cake in the shape of a ring symbolizes coming to a full circle, a reminder that every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

New Year Irish Traditions ~

• It's expected that your home will be spotless clean by New Year's Eve because a cleanly home is a prosperous home.
• Irish Christmas Soda Bread is made and then used to "knock" on the walls and doors to chase away bad luck and invite the good spirits in before the start of the new year.
  
• Just before midnight, open the front door to let the new year in and the back door to let the old year out. Opening the front door at midnight also allows you to greet your neighbors and wish them a Happy New Year!
• Set an extra place at the table for your family no longer with us.
• Your lucky and delicious dishes may make you want to stuff yourself silly; it's essential to be mindful of greed. Food left on your plate symbolizes a full icebox and a stocked pantry in the New Year.

Athbhliain Faoi Mhaise Duit