My eight-year-old has some very strong ideas. Well, all of her ideas are pretty strong. You could say she’s a bit bull-headed determined. And there is no reason to think that New Year’s Eve was going to be any different.

From the moment we arrived home from our Christmas road-trip to the grandparents (at 10:25pm on December 27th, natch), she has been planning our New Year’s Eve party. Or I should say, she has been telling me that I need to sit with her and plan our New Year’s Eve party RIGHT NOW. Bear in mind that before this moment, there had been no discussion of a New Year’s Eve party. Or any party at all. Nothing. She just decided, “Well, OK. Christmas is over. That was lovely. Now let’s do New Year’s.” And she wanted to do it in style.

According to her, any proper New Year’s party should include:

• Streamers decorating the walls.
• Balloons
• A balloon drop – at midnight
• Staying up until midnight – four hours past bed time
• A countdown
• Sparklers
• Party poppers and Crackers (I think the kind of crackers with gunpowder, not salt)
• Funny hats
• Noise makers (beyond the explosive kind, listed above)

I have to hand it to her, it’s a pretty good list. No idea where she came up with it – no idea. As far as I know, she doesn’t spend any time on Pinterest. But where the idea originated is irrelevant. We were doing this.

You may have figured out from my snark tone that I was not completely on board. I would have much rather spent the days between Christmas and New Years:

• Catching up on laundry
• Clearing away some of the Christmas chaos
• Preparing lesson plans for a new semester of homeschool
• Watching really bad pre-New Year’s college football bowl games
• Planning my new year (not actually celebrating it)
• Pulling my fingernails out

But my little tyrant angel was undeterred. And I had no real reason to say no, and certainly nothing better planned for the evening.

And so, we had a quiet little affair, serving cheese & crackers, bubbly grape juice and brownies brought over by a friend who joined us for the soiree to play the part of the “party guest” and generally be a good sport.

We toasted with cotton candy soda we saw on Pinterest.

We bought a “Party Set” of glittery hats, tinsel leis, and party crackers at Target for a whopping $13, and picked up some confetti poppers at the grocery store for a dollar.

We took advantage of King Julian’s New Year Countdown, and while my daughter was not fooled into thinking it was midnight – she tells time to the minute, which is a whole other story for another time – it did give us a way to initiate the balloon drop.

The balloon drop was a plastic party tablecloth, a bag of balloons and some painter’s tape we had on hand. We added a tinsel rip-cord from the party-in-a-box for a festive touch, and in the end, it worked remarkably well. When the little munchkin pulled the cord and the balloons tumbled down on her … pure joy.

Turns out, we didn’t need a lot of people. Or food. Or handmade, glitter-encrusted decorations. Just a willing spirit and a $20 trip to Target. And brownies.

New Year’s Eve party? Check!

Now the only question is, what we are doing NEXT New Year’s Eve.