We don't do anything. An option for you is to go out to a nice restaurant in your area. They almost always have New Year's festivities but even if they don't, a really nice meal where you and DH can toast the New Year and discuss the old ( even if it's way before midnight) might be just the thing.

I was thinking a later dinner and end up some quiet place overlooking the city. Sounds good. Thanks M!

P.S. Hope that cute lil' ol' Digby is having a good time adjusting. I bet Rootie K is too.

LOL! At this stage of my life I'm lucky to stay awake until Midnight, much less have the energy to be partying on New Year's Eve (dubbed "amateur night" by DH for obvious reasons).

We save the various food packaged we receive as Christmas gifts for New Year's Eve & spend the evening playing games like Scrabble & munching. If we stay awake, we flip on the tube to watch the ball drop in Times Square & toast in the new Year with a glass or two of bubbly & then hobble off to bed.

We have a friend who has a New Year's Day open house every year & at this point that's our preferable method of welcoming in 2008.

A couple of years ago there was a neighborhood Christmas party and everyone decided it would be nice to have a New Year's Eve party instead sometime. The only prerequisite would be that everyone had to promise to go home by 10:00.

I would never go out for dinner on New Years Eve. Around here, the restaruants are over booked, you get poor service and it is better to stay home. We use to get together with another couple a few blocks away, our daughters were friends, and we would play games and munch. And at midnight go out on the front porch and bang on pans. Dh would call each of his sisters and wish them happy new year. This year, son will be off with friends in some city. DD is going to friends. Dh and I will probably do mothing, which sounds just fine.

DD and SIL and several of their friends go to dinner at a really nice restaurant, the sort where if you aren't, you wish you were wearing diamonds. Following that, they dance -- ballroom, where you can swirl your silk skirt. No more than one or two glasses of wine for the evening. This is their Grown-Ups Night Out, and they enjoy it.

Me, I'll probably be asleep by 10. But I'll be among the first to greet the next new day, lol.

I really don't remember the last time we actually stayed up to see the New Year arrive. Bed and sleep is infinitely more appealing! However, for the last few years we have gone out for dinner to a "nicer" restaurant -- usually around 6 p.m., so we're home before any crazies get on the road.

Many communities across the country have "First Night" celebrations. They are alcohol free and are a place for people to hear music, dance, enjoy their town or neighborhood and celebrate the New Year. Here we have a minstrel show at the Courthouse, guitar music at the Boiler House (a youth cafe), dancing at the Community Center and a couple more that escape me. It's a safe and great way to celebrate.

Rob, if you and Ed lived here you'd be at one of those. Some have childcare. These are community celebrations organized and made to fit many different kinds of ages and scenarios.

However, I'll be in bed before my Coach turns back into a pumpkin:) Mental note: no eating cheese in bed Dec. 31.

We used to stay up and watch Guy Lombardo and rattle pans out in front at midnight. Those days are gone forever. Usually there are some TV NYE celebrations on and some are fun to watch just to see who is wearing what etc.

I understand that Dick Clark will again be hosting a special.

At least for this year, I'll once more make a pot of gumbo, a bowl of real eggnog, cool some champagne and see who shows up.

The tradition started when we had young children, as did a few other families in our little townhouse complex. The kids would all be in the finished front room of the basement, the adults upstairs, a few friends from around the neighborhood would join us. No one had to find a babysitter or worry about driving and if the food wasn't quite up to Cape Cod Room standards, the price was right.

Now, some families have moved away, the mother of one of my son's playmates is living in a retirement complex, some folks no longer stay up late, but a few new faces have been added. Roberta and I are used to getting up early and are more than ready for bed by the time the last guest departs, but we can't yet bring ourselves to send out Christmas cards without the usual invitation on them.

Neil,when you wrote about his last year,I thought then it would be fun to show up. It's a perfect way to spend New Years Eve.

Well, if you find yourself on the South Side, we're in the phone book. The gumbo will be ready for its finishing touches anytime after 10:00.

I wish I could. I was born on the South Side,Jackson Park Hospital, and have lots of wonderful memories. Thanks for the invitation and wouldn't you be surprised if I did show up?

When we were younger we hosted a New Years Party every year ... now I greet the New Year in the morning :)

Ours were family parties, the children are all grown up now and do their own thing.

Hey I went to Avalon Park school then Hirsch High on the southside

I hope you all show up and tell us about it! That would be a New Year's eve to remember.

We always go out or have a party! This year is the most low-key in years. We're going to a pre-party at one friend's house and then to a small party at another friend's house until sometime after midnight. Our New Year's plans could change once we start having kids.

Well, according to my clock it's 12:27 am, officially year 2008. Obviously I'm still up..DH went to bed at 7:30. Read a book, watched the ball drop. now I'm going to bed. Happy New Year, all!

We accidentally threw a party. Everyone just now left. I wanted to go to sleep, but between the champagne toasts and the fact that we invited Eastern Europeans and did the obligatory vodka shots... the bed is spinning a little much for me to sleep in it just yet...

We've been with my family in ND for over a week, and I'm ready to fly out to CT next Friday to spend the weekend with my sis and her whole famn damily. I'm just about holiday-ed out, but am enjoying celebrating everything the calendar allows. Happy New Year y'all!

We sat around & watched old Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers movies on TCM. At about 11:50 DH switched over to watch the ball drop & poor old Dick Clark! Why is he still up there on TV? It's just too sad.

Anyway, we popped the cork on a bottle of bubbly, toasted in the New Year & I was in bed asleep by 12:15. So much for the high life!

Happy New Year!

For old times sake we watched a vintage "Cheech and Chong" movie. Missed the 12:00 mark and didnt care.

Joann and I and the dogs and the cats were the only celebrants, everyone else is a party pooper.
We had a late supper of some of the free crabs along with a really good mini loaf of French bread, listened to music, turned on the TV and eventually actually found a station broadcasting from San Francisco, all the others showed "live, on tape" NY City doings. So we popped the cork a little ahead of time, sipping champagne while watching the count-down, toasted the New Year, wishing for a good 2008 in our personal sphere - the rest of the world just will have to do the best it can.

We went out for that early dinner I mentioned, before. We were in bed by our usual time--10:30--but the New Year still arrived -- on time, too -- I think.

Did something totally different from what I said in earlier post (which was basically stay home and do nothing). At the last minute had a chance to see Trans Sibereian Orchestra in Cleveland. It has been almost 30 years since I say a BIG arena style rock show. My have laser lights come along way since I saw them in Genesis in Zurich on their first tour with Phil Collins as lead singer. It was fun, but probably won't do something like that again. People were dressed in everything from jeans to evenining gowns. DS was somewhere at a party in DC, DD was at a friend's house, and DH played cards at his sister's. He would have enjoyed the show, but spontenuity is not in his vocabulary.

Rob333, so what did you end up doing?

I spent an half hour in line at the liquor store to get may biennial bottle of hootch, mostly I used in cooking and I made Tom and Jerries to ring in the new year. My husband had a whiskey/ginger and we ate Amish cheese and crackers. I played games on the puter till nearly midnight, went in with the DH, watched the ball drop, gave him a smooch and we both went to bed. Wild and crazy bunch, huh?

Thanks for asking Suzy! Ed helped a friend move from 4PM-4AM on Sunday and then got up at 10AM. On Monday, he went in to work the Music City Bowl at about 4:30AM... so we stayed home; he hadn't enough sleep to do anything too far away. LF picked movies out of our stash which we watched. He picked Black Sheep (we need Tommy Boy!), Young Frankenstein, and Lord of the Rings. We ate horribly and had heartburn all night long teehee. Mostly, it was corn chips. Scoops with taco meat, cheese and sour cream. Or Ed's cheese dip which has spicy sausage and rotel. Ordinary Doritos. UGH! I haven't even heartburn since being pregnant. I have pictures of the veg session, but didn't bring them as is typical of me. Sorry!

What did everyone else do?

Pretty much the usual crowd and usual fare, but my son and daughter in law came and brought one of his friends from law school. I'm thinking of switching to a duck and sausage gumbo next year because my son doesn't like seafood, one of our neighbors is allergic to it, and it doesn't make sense to go through all the shrimp-cleaning/stock-making work for stuff that some folks can't enjoy.

Just as we were getting things ready for guests to arrive, we got a phone call. It was one of my son's best boyhood friends, the son of the neighbor who'd now in the retirement complex. He's living in upstate NY, managing a grocery coop and making biodiesel on the side. He called because he remembered drinking eggnog in the kitchen and wanted to reconnect with familiar voices and rituals.

We had an early celebration dinner with friends, then came
home played with Sassi, I got on the computer for awhile
til it was time for the ball to drop.
We watched it together gave each other hugs and kisses,
then off to bed.

Neil got up on New Year's day with a cold so he's feeling
pretty bad.