Happy New Year

Guess who stayed up until midnight and got to taste a little champagne?

I wouldn't normally think of New Year's as a holiday that preschool children participate in, but before our friends the Fords came over to celebrate the New Year with us, Sydney and I did a little craft activity where I wrote 2010 on cardstock and we glued black eyed beans on top of the numbers and talked about the new year.

Then I took New Year's pictures of both Sydney and Jack dressed in silly party hats and they both played with the noise makers. I also bought some holiday crackers to use in place of firecrackers and Sydney and I pulled those apart and played with the little toys inside.

While the adults were playing Parcheesi, Sydney got out her own Parcheesi set and played by herself for a bit and then played in her playroom. We had told her that that New Year's Eve was a holiday about staying up as late as you want and that as long as she didn't fuss, left the grown-ups alone while they played board games and obeyed, she wouldn't have to go to bed. She managed to stay up until 12:10 at which point she opted to play in her bed and prompted crashed.

Because she actually made it to midnight, she also got to participate in the countdown and the toast. She was very shocked and disappointed by the taste of champagne. "Um, I don't like this," she told us after trying it. Which is lucky, I guess, since the last "adult" beverage we let her try was unsweetened espresso and she loved that.

I was so excited that Sydney actually got to participate in some of the traditions of New Year's Eve with us. Initially, I was thinking that it would be nice if she had gone to bed early to leave us to hang out with our friends, but as the evening wore on, she was so well behaved and one of the many reasons we like the Fords so much is how very kid-friendly they are. So in the end, I was glad that Sydney stayed up and got to experience the novelty of seeing midnight. Celebrating New Year's with her was a treat.

And as a bonus, our little New Year's Eve craft activity has taught her to recognize the numbers 0, 1 and 2.