Brighten Up Your New Year’s Eve Celebration With Strawberry Lemonade Champagne

Thanks to Mike’s Hard Lemonade for sponsoring this post. Please drink responsibly.

I can’t believe Christmas is around the corner… and before we know it, it’ll be time to ring in the New Year! For the past ten years or so, we’ve done our New Year’s Eve celebrations at home; keeping things low key with pizza and the New Year’s countdown on TV. This year, though, I wanted to change things up a bit.

Instead of toasting with regular champagne I added a fruity twist and brightened things up with Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Truth be told, I do not like champagne at all, so the midnight toast never really appealed to me because it was followed by a sip of something I didn’t enjoy the taste of. This year, though, I’ll be sipping strawberry lemonade champagne so I’ll happily be toasting with my glass of pink bubbly in hand. What I love most about this drink is that it’s super simple but adds a lot of happiness (and deliciousness) to the occasion. So, if champagne isn’t your drink of choice… I’ve got a simple fix and easy recipe you can use to ring in the New Year just right!

To make strawberry lemonade champagne, just fill your flute two thirds full with Mike’s Hard Strawberry Lemonade and top your glass off with the champagne. You can even add some lemon zest or muddled strawberry at the bottom of your glass if you’d like to. The strawberry lemonade flavor is my favorite Mike’s Hard Lemonade, but you can use the other flavors if you prefer.

Mike’s Hard Lemonade can brighten any occasion this holiday season, from holiday parties to that late-night wrapping session you are bound to have on Christmas Eve. However you celebrate, I hope you all have a festive rest of your holiday season and a fantastic start to your New Year!

 

* MIKE’S IS HARD. SO IS PRISON. DON’T DRIVE DRUNK® PREMIUM MALT BEVERAGE ©2017 MIKE’S HARD LEMONADE CO. CHICAGO, IL

Southern Stew {Recipe}

Here’s a great recipe to make on New Year’s day! A common good luck food in the southern United States are the black eyed peas. Black-eyed peas are thought to bring prosperity, so Allens Vegetables wanted to share this great recipe, wishing you only the best of the good luck that is yet to come!


Ingredients


1 Rotisserie chicken, fully cooked
1 Tbsp. Olive oil
1/2 cup Green peppers, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1/2 cup Onions, chopped
8 oz. Smoked sausage, cooked and diced
1 can Allens Cut Okra, Tomatoes and Corn
2 cans Allens Blackeyed Peas, drained and rinsed
1 32 oz. carton Low sodium chicken broth
2 cups Water
1 tsp. Cumin
1 pound medium Shrimp, peeled and deveined

Directions


Remove meat from chicken, discarding skin and bones from chicken. Chop into bite size pieces. Set aside until needed. Heat oil in large saucepan or Dutch oven. Add peppers, garlic and onions. Saute 5 minutes until peppers and onions are tender. Add sausage and continue cooking until sausage is browned. Add okra, tomatoes and corn, peas, chicken broth and water. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Add reserved chicken and cumin. Stir to combine. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add shrimp. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until shrimp are pink and opaque, about 8 minutes. Ladle into 6 shallow soup bowls. Serve hot.

(Disclosure: Recipe and image courtesy of Allens Vegetables. This is not a compensated post.)

Throw A “Noon” Year’s Eve Party {10 Ideas}

When children are really young and can’t stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve you can still help them ring in the New Year by throwing a “Noon” Year’s Eve party with morning festivities and a celebration at noon.

Here are 10 great ideas to make this event extra special:

1) Open a bag each hour with a new activity inside. I love this idea from Keepers Ministry!

2) Make New Year’s Eve poppers filled with leftover Christmas candy. Great tutorial at Make and Takes.

3) Make a list of all the fun things you’d like to do as a family in the New Year.

4) Treat everyone to some cookies designed to look like clocks.

5) Have a balloon drop at noon.

6) Put bubble wrap on the ground and have the kids jump on it to pop it at midnight.

7) Make some party hats to wear! Check out these cute New Year crowns.

8) Party punch in a large bowl will make the occasion extra special.

9) Play a game of Charades and act out events that happened over the past year.

10) Make time capsules to open next New Year’s Eve.

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I’d love to hear any ideas you have on how to make New Year’s Eve special for kids :)