First, make sure your wife is awesome. If you've got that... everything else will fall into place.

I'm lucky enough to be able to check off that box.

When my wife and I were younger, we were "club kids".

I think I broke my hip just looking at this picture of Neo Night Club

We met at an industrial club and went to clubs three or four night per week. Eventually, that dwindled to two night per week. Then we had our son. From the second he was born, I loved that little guy more than anything else in the world... even more than going to clubs. So the number dwindled to zero. And we were happy it did. I still go a few times a year just to feel young for a while, but my wife is completely done. She's an awesome mom so I think that makes her feel young. Once my daughter was born (and she showed me that my ability to love is limitless) even I cut back to going to clubs on special occasions only.

Even when we were two wild and crazy club kids, New Year's Eve was never out favorite night. We tended to avoid out favorite places because on December 31st, they became "amateur night". They were more expensive, more crowded, and more full of conflict. So many fights broke out on New Year's Eve, that we eventually stopped going out. We also wanted to avoid all of the the over-served drivers. Therefore, we ended up taking cabs to parties or non traditional locations.

We had a couple of very memorable New Year's Eve experiences when we were still in our twenties. The most amazing of these was the year we attended a loft party thrown by some of the most famous Chicago DJs at the time. We happened to be pals with a few of them so they made sure to play our favorite kind of music. On another occasion we saw The Might Blue Kings play at the Grand Ballroom of Chicago's Navy Pier.

This is not the Navy Pier performance but it was from one of our favorite Chicago venues:
The Metro

So we had our share of fun... just usually not on New Year's Eve.

After our kids were born, we reeled it in even more. We had a lot to lose by being out on New Year's Eve, so we decided to keep it simple. One year we threw a party at our house. Our friends drank a ton and slept over. It seemed like a great idea... until our infant son woke up at 4:00 A.M. That was our last New Year's Eve party.

But that is OK. We think we have found the perfect recipe for New Year's Eve fun with an 11 and 9 year old.

No this isn't the idea. This is fun for no one...

We start by getting my crazy mother to come over to baby sit. I love her, but she's a loon. She's 67 years old and actually has a "hangout". There is a pizza joint not far from my home. This pizza joint has a giant party room. Thursday through Saturday, the room turns into the biggest karaoke bar I've ever seen... and it is filled with senior citizens. They rock the joint from 8:00 PM until 2:00Am. So my mom is more than willing to hang out with my kids before heading out to sing a little Patsy Cline.

My mom arrives around 4:30 PM (we have to tell her that to make sure she actually arrives before 5:00). My wife and I go for an early dinner at a nice restaurant. Aside from us, the restaurants are either filled with really old people, or people with kids. But we don't care. We enjoy each other's company, a little wine, and some delicious food.

'Tis no man. 'Tis a remorseless eating machine.

After dinner, we hang out long enough to make sure our kids will be pretty tired when we get home (for us, this mean 8:00 PM).

We thank my mom and she rushes off to sing.

Then the party starts. We have a dance party with our kids. We play our kids' favorite dance songs and jump around like idiots. We take turns filming each other. My daughter especially loves to teach us "new" dance moves. This year, the biggest hits were The Ramones Blitzkrieg Bop and Prince's 1999.

After dancing, we fill champaign glasses with a little prosecco, sprite and chocolate milk (4 different glasses, not all mixed together. Yuck!) then we flip on Netflix for a kids New Year's Eve countdown. This year we tried The Skylanders (it sucked) then Troll Hunters (sucked more) and then went to our old standby Madagascar. This one is always entertaining.

There is no way our kids could make it to midnight so we use these countdowns to simulate the ball drop on New Year's Eve. We spin noisemakers, wear silly hats, cheer and make a toast. The toast is always about how awesome our last year was and how much we are looking forward to our next.

I am a lucky man.

I am a lucky man.

I am a lucky man.

(That is once for my wife, once for my son, and once for my daughter.)

Although we only "party" for around one half of an hour, it may be my favorite 30 minutes of the entire year.

I hope all of you had equally happy celebrations last night... or any night.

Cheers!!!!!

How did you celebrate New Years Eve?

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