Aloha New Year's!

by Scott
(Delaware, OH, USA)

A few years ago when we moved into our new home, we decided to have a New Year's Eve party in our new home with all of our friends. Because we live in Ohio, its almost always very cold and often snowy on New Year's. What better way to celebrate than to make it tropical! We sent out evites that were Hawaiian themed, told everyone to dress like they were going to the beach and that we would have our heat cranked way up, bought tiki/tropical decorations for the house and guests, and made up a menu of yummy summer foods. Our decorations were cardboard cut-outs of tiki heads and flowers. We also had palm fronds and plastic flower necklaces for everyone. Our menu consisted of cookout food (hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, etc.) and frozen drinks (pina coladas, etc.) We also played only tropical/Latin music the whole night. The biggest hit of the evening was that we dressed our cat up in a mini-bikini! If you have seen the pictures of cats with six bikini tops and one bottom, that is what we did! We made the outfit ourselves out of an old beach towel. We presented her as the sacrifice for the volcano god before the New Year's toast. It was hilarious and our kitty was a total princess and very patient with us (she loves any attention and often wears sweaters around the house). The party was a real hit and everyone had a blast.