Our New Year's Eve (2014)

Since I'm stuck inside avoiding a nice, balmy temperature of 4 degrees (sarcasm), I'd  thought I would take a moment to update my blog with a New Year's Post :D

We decided to celebrate New Year's Eve by eating a lot of Chinese food in our own dining room.  It was fun, and you know I have a lot of pictures, but first let me show you my New Year's Decor:

A trifle bowl filled with party supplies.

I am one of those people who takes down all of my Christmas decor the day after the holiday.  I put it all up the day after Thanksgiving and love every bit of it every day...until the clock strikes midnight on Christmas Day.  After that moment, the magic is gone and it all becomes clutter to me.  So away it goes! But that's ok, because I need to get out the Winter and New Year's decor anyway :)

Except for the noisemakers, everything pictured here has been collected over the years.  

I keep a separate bag for New Year's decor in the same bin as my Winter decor.  That way I only have to grab one container from the freezing cold garage after Christmas.  I put out both New Year's and Winter at the same time and a week later (when New Year's is already over) I can quickly stash the New Year's decor right back into the same box.  This leaves the Winter decor already in place and I get to relax a bit ;)

*My winter decor post will be coming soon*

A couple of fancy masks.

These were purchased with Baby Girl in mind (Dollar Tree).  I knew she would enjoy playing with them, and I would get some great photo opportunities.

Celebration Table

When it came time to set the table for our celebration dinner, I simply pulled a few New Year's items from our holiday decor.  I used a small fleece winter blanket as our table cloth...yep, that's a blanket!

(If you missed my previous post detailing my glassware and plates, click here)

I left the table like this, simple and empty, so Baby Girl could take over......

......and here are her contributions.

She did a great job, don't you think?

I love that even at such a young age, she already has an eye for design!

 Our Feast

We had:  Sweet & Sour chicken with rice and veggies, egg rolls, pot stickers and crab rangoon.

I spent all day in the kitchen cooking, keep scrolling for my recipes......

......just kidding!  :D :D :D

Thank you Pagoda Express and Campbells for making this a super easy and yummy meal!

I did use a couple of tricks to keep it healthier though; I baked our sides until they were nice and crisp and I boiled our chicken instead of frying it.  

We follow a heart healthy diet around here so that means lots of chicken/ turkey and I rarely fry anything.  Since Husby and I both have good cholesterol levels, we get to have a 'cheat' (AKA unhealthy) meal each week.  This was our cheat for the week of New Year's.   Although I still chose  not to look at the salt content of these items...it was a holiday ;)

Dessert: Ice cream in a tuxedo!

What the what?!?!  Aren't these little chocolate tuxedo cups the cutest things?  My Aunt Linda sent a gift basket to my parents house for Christmas that was full of fun and yummy things.  I got to take these tuxedo cups home with me!

Dressing Your Ice Cream

I added a little bit of cookie ice cream before topping with Cool Whip and chocolate sprinkles.  They were really cute and the kiddos enjoyed eating them.  Thanks Linda!

That's how we enjoyed our holiday, how about you?

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015