New Year's Eve. Nashville Style.

Typically we spend New Year’s Eve at home. A few years back we went to a family New Year’s Eve party at a friend’s house and we had a great time but usually we don’t leave our house. We also started a tradition of celebrating the New Year on East Coast time. Since we lived three hours behind New York we would watch the Dick Clark New Year’s Eve show and watch the ball drop. At 9:00 (Pacific Time) we would clank our glasses of apple cider and say “Happy New Year!” to each other, then it was off to bed. This worked well for us. Sometimes, Rob and I would stay up and celebrate the real New Year in our time zone but sometimes we were tired and would just go to bed early, too.

This year we had to do it different since we’re now in the Central time zone. If we are going to let the kids stay up until 11 why not go for midnight, right? We planned a quiet night in the RV with a bottle of sparkling cranberry cider (I was late getting to the store and all the sparkling apple cider was sold out, major bummer). We planned to watch the ball drop in New York and celebrate here. At the last minute we decided to head to downtown Nashville for the Music City Bash on Broadway. It is a big party downtown with bands playing on an outdoor stage and a music note that drops at midnight. There are also fireworks at midnight. So, we all got bundled up because it was super cold outside and headed downtown. We found parking fairly close to where the action was which made me happy because I really wasn’t in the mood for a lot of walking.

The girls were really excited to see the band Love and Theft. But, we got there late and the girls were only able to hear the last song by the band, which turns out was their favorite. The girls were singing and dancing in the street while we walked around. It was cold and crowded downtown. There really weren’t many kids around, although we did see a few. The girls were annoyed by the smell of cigarette smoke but we tried to stay as long as we could. We stayed to see all of Sixpence None the Richer. In the beginning I thought I had never heard of the band but it turns out they were a fairly popular band in the 1990s with the song “Kiss Me”, they had another song I heard many years ago but I don’t remember the title of that one. They were a decent band and it’s always fun to listen to live music.

I was getting colder the longer we were there. It started to rain more. We decided to leave. We didn’t stay to see The Fray, which wasn’t a big deal since I didn’t really know who they were anyway. We all decided it would be better to head back home and watch the Nashville NYE celebration on TV. We tuned in to CNN because they were covering the Nashville celebration. Turns out, CNN wasn’t really appropriate for the girls to watch but by the time we got back here we only had about 30 minutes until the New Year officially began. We watched the music note drop and the fireworks go off on TV. We drank our cranberry cider and yelled “Happy New Year!” Cv loved her cider, she kept saying “apple cider, apple cider” while walking around the RV. She was adorable. She had two naps that day which is why she was able to make it to midnight. We went to bed about five minutes after midnight. Everyone was lighting fireworks, it was weird for us. In California you’re not allowed to do fireworks, some places ever, others only on Fourth of July. And, the fireworks we are allowed to have are much different than the fireworks other states allow! We were lying in bed and Cv seemed a little spooked by the constant loud bangs. I told her it was just fireworks and she kept saying “just firowerks?” It only took her a few minutes to crash out but the bangs were definitely a new sound for her. The older girls loved seeing all the fireworks in the sky!

Downtown turned out to be too much with four little kiddos. It was fun though, for the time we were there and it made me love this place just a little bit more! I think next year we will spend NYE at home. The girls can make a big paper mache ball that we can drop. We’ll paint it with glittery paint. Maybe we could even fill it with candy. I don’t think it would be a good idea to give kids bats at midnight but maybe we can just drop the ball really hard on the ground so it shatters and candy goes everywhere? Who knows, I have a year to plan it!