New Year's Eve Traditions - Jacki-style

I've already written a few New Year's Eve blogs for my clients, so I feel like I am scraping the bottom of the barrel to write one for myself. 

But I like my New Year's Even traditions a lot (even though we're not doing any of them this year) so you get to hear about them. 

I will do them in list form, though, because I am feeling listy.

Warning: a lot of my traditions involve fire for some reason. And one involves ice, so I guess I'm going for a Dueling Dragons thing. 

R.I.P. That awesome ride, amirite?

New Year's Eve Jacki Traditions In List Form

1. Make Chex Max. This is not the recipe from the back of the box. This recipe was passed down from my nana and I can't even tell you what amounts of things to use. I just do it by feel. No one else in my family knows how to make it. There is Chex cereal (corn and wheat), salted butter, granulated garlic and maggi. It's the maggi that's the magic. (Note: I am still doing this tradition this year)
2. Make Christmas Crack. This recipe I got from my friend JenFromJax 20+ years ago. When I would make it for a children's event, we called it Christmas Junk. But trust when I say this delicious treat is 100% crack. You will have one piece of this sweet-salty-crunchy-gooey treat and keep sneaking into the kitchen for more until your tummy hurts. 
3. Burn things in the sky. No, not fireworks. Sky lanterns. For the last few years, a few hours before midnight we all go out in the driveway and struggle with these for about an hour. They get torn, burnt, the wicks fall out. There are always many issues but we get at least 50% of 'em in the air every year. That quiet silent wonder makes up for all the prior struggles. 
4. Set our wishes ablaze. This trick is inspired by my favorite food movie of all time. Now, in the film, they use wrappers from some sweets, but I could never find the right ones, so I just buy wish paper every year. Basically we all gather 'round a table, scribble the things we want to leave in the previous year on the paper, make 'em into a chimney and light 'em up. 
5. Have a dang sno-ball fight. Yes, I meant sno-ball. It is a very specific icefeel and I prefer it over all other shaved ice options. This tradition comes from my twin from another mama, KPerks. A few years ago she brought a cooler full of sno-balls to the NYE party. We ate the heck out of the sno-balls, but still had so much left over. So right after midnight, we carried the cooler to the front yard and had a Florida sno-ball fight. It was glorious, so naturally it became a tradition. 
6. Bonus: Theme the fuck out of it. Normally we have a party for our favorite folks every NYE, but not the last few. 2019's theme was "Is that all there is?" and I guess 2020 and 2021 answered that question with a resounding YES!

p.s. my favorite sno-ball fight memory was from 2019, when we dragged the cooler to our neighbor at the corner who's gramps had never seen snow before. He did not speak any English, but I caught a glimpse of what he must have looked like as a kid as I watched him throw his first-ever snowball. 

That's a happy new year, indeed.