HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Years Eve!!  I promised myself from last year I would NOT celebrate with the kids this year.   Last year, I bought the horns, the hats, the plastic champagne glasses, the mock champagne, the goofy 2013 glasses, and the poppers!  I bought snacks and set up my laptop to stream the ball drop.  And what happened when I called my kids down to count down.  I got:  "Nahh I'm all set ma"  from my oldest.  And "Um well, do I haveta?"  from my youngest.  Needless to say I was frustrated and disappointed with them both.  So, I did what anyone would do in my situation.  I put on my party hat, my glasses pour a glass of mock champagne, and popped a popper while I counted down by myself all alone in the room til midnight.


SO THIS year, I refused to do that.    This year, instead I decided to make appetizers for everyone. Long story short,  I spent too much money, and made WAY too much food.  Well unless I was having a crowd come over that is.  Which I didn't.   In fact I did so much that I ended up falling asleep for 2 hours before the ball dropped as I couldn't help myself.   I did ended up watching the ball drop, and actually did it with the boys as they begged and pleaded to stay up this time.  I think they learned their lesson.

So I took pictures of SOME of the food I made.  I say some because I made more just didn't have the energy to snap another picture.  Next year, as I told a friend, a bag of CHIPS.  That's it. haha Because this was ridiculous.

It started out so simple:  Ham and cheese finger rolls and green olive cream cheese stuffed celery.
Already I did WAY too much as there was just me, my mom and my dad.  The kids don't count as they didn't want anything.

Did that stop me?  Nope.  I continued cooking.

Next I made mini wieners wrapped in croissants with a zesty dipping sauce.  Trust me when I say there were TONS more.  This was just a few I threw in a plate for the picture. It was insane how much I made.

Then I made a nice cheese and cracker plate up using 3 different cheeses.

Did I stop there? Not even close.

Next I made spinach balls. They are MUCH better then they sound.  That was one of the things I didn't take a picture of.  Here's KINDA what they would look like I guess. 

Then I realized I had lots of left over mini weiners and so I wrapped maple bacon around each one and put it in a baking dish, I covered them all with a pound of brown sugar and baked it til the sugar melted into a syrup.  I know it wasn't healthy but... MAN was it ever good!  (yeah the front ones needed to cook longer and after I snapped this pic I put those ones back in.)

Did it stop there?  NOPE.

More I tell you I wanted MORE!!  I think something is wrong with me. hahah

I wanted shrimp!  So, I bought one of those round shrimp things with the shrimp sauce in the center. And also made from scratch stuffed shrimp!! OMG it was fabulous!!  (again didn't take a pic of it, but this is what it looked like)

But wait there's more!  Seriously.

My mom made crab meat appetizers too!  They were sooo good.  here's what they look like: 

And that was the last thing.

I know......... yes I know.  I don't know what I was thinking.... But, it's all good. hahah

So, as I said earlier, next New Years Eve I'm having a bag of chips, and that's it. hah :)