We came back after our long Christmas travels ready to regroup and rest.

While doing this, Z was enjoying and exploring his new toys. Some of these had stayed in boxes because they had small parts or needed batteries.

In the midst of regrouping we also took time to rest and play. New Years Eve and Day are the only two days we have alone as a family during the Christmas holiday which is also  L’s longest work vacation of the year. We wanted to make sure L got down time and enjoyed being with his family before hitting the 2020 work year.

So we had a low key celebration. We did a kid friendly cheese fondue. Z was still unsure about the cheese but loved the snack items we used to dip like “mini hot dogs”, crackers, apples, pretzels, and olives.

We also played a few games.  Z liked the idea of candyland, he understands the concept, but we have a little while until he will have the patience to sit through a game. Z kept teasing, putting his gingerbread man on the castle so we had to keep track of where he was supposed to be on the board.

He did enjoy a dinosaur matching game that came in his stocking and a vehicle counting game similar to “war”. These were fast and kept his attention.

Z and chocolate don’t mix well, so instead of a chocolate desert fondue we did a cream cheese and honey dip with apples, strawberries, raspberries, and graham cracker.

We let Z stay up a little later on New Years Eve and have sparkling apple cider with dinner snacks. At his bed time we did a count down to the new year with him.

L and I managed to stay up to midnight catching up on shows. We didn’t do a countdown ourselves because fireworks went off  nearby and woke up Z. He ended up with us in our bed soon after midnight.

It was the perfect pace for our family before starting the 2020 routine.

How do you ring in the new year?