Happy 2009!

I hope you had a "ball" on New Years Eve!

I had to scale down my original New Years Eve plan, since we all got sick between Christmas and New Years, and our party ended up being a rather intimate family gathering. Still, I had to pull out a few of the stops for my in-laws (who mostly smile and shake their heads at me--they don't all share my insanity). We couldn't use these blowers since we had put my nephew to bed and they were too loud, but they looked cool, either way. I know you agree, since I saw the same ones at other New Years Eve parties featured around blogland. Mine came from Walmart, as did the streamer shooters. Those were in the wedding section. The ornaments and silver tray are from the dollar store.

The angle is a little funny on this picture or I didn't get my candles in straight (likely both). I got these fun candlesticks and the contents of the bowl at Target after Christmas clearance (plus a lot of others stuff I will share soon). I think the candlesticks will work well year round.

Here is another arrangement I made using and urn I already had and some after-Christmas clearance picks (Michaels, I think).

I didn't get to make this ball, but instead pulled out one of our old wedding lanterns--lit it with a battery-powered candle, and had Grandpa "drop" it from the banister as we counted down.

Incidentally, we had our countdown at the same time the ball dropped in NYC. This was actually 10:00 AZ time. I thought we would put the kids down and the adults would party more, but they had all been sick and were grateful for a couple of extra hours of sleep. So the kids had as much excitement as everyone else and were OK with the arrangement.

Stay tuned for lots more insanity in 2009! Up next, I'm cleaning up my blog for the New Year, and if you are lucky, I will share the recipe for this New Years tradition...