With New Year's Eve on the horizon, many of us are faced with the age-old question of what to do with the last night of the year. And spoiler alert: I'm often feel less-than-enthused at the thought of hitting a party. Shocker, right? I'm sure no one could've ever guessed that staying home is what moms do on New Year's Eve. Sure, there were times in my life when the holiday was super fun and felt like an extra-sparkly way to have an epic time with friends, meet people, drink and dance (mostly, this happened when I was a stressed-out college student needing to blow off steam from finals or whatever was ailing me as a stressed-out English major who took my poetry class way too seriously). But more often than not, New Year's Eve brought so much hype, so much build-up, so much preparation for parties, and for what? I'd find myself half-heartedly going out dancing with my friends before wandering home for toast and those deep, party punch-fueled conversations that you can only have in college at 2 a.m. under the buzzy flickers of fluorescent lighting.

This is not meant to be a slight against parties or bars or clubs. That stuff is great. I only mean to point out that "going out" can feel like more trouble than it's worth. And if there's ever a time in any of our lives where we are reminded of this fact, it's New Year's Eve.

And so, I'm thankful for the opportunity to say loudly and proudly that I LOVE STAYING IN ON NEW YEAR'S EVE. I've been doing it for a couple of years now, and while I reserve the right to change my mind in the future, I can say with certainty that it's not going to be this year. I'm going to be curled up at home with my partner, listening to our kiddo snore on the monitor, and probably loving every second of it. I know, this sounds like death by boredom to some people, but I can assure you, that's not the case here. We usually plan ahead and make a semi-fancy dinner for ourselves and and then carve out a few hours for some of our favorite indoor activities (jigsaw puzzles, board games, and movies, naturally). And no, before you scroll and double check the profile of the person writing this, I'm not a senior citizen (though I'm often mistaken for one when I talk about my love for jigsaw puzzles so it's cool, I'm not offended).

All of the glorious quiet time that I embrace on NYE gives me plenty of time to think. As a fairly new mom, it's no surprise that my thoughts often center around motherhood, my kiddo, and feeling tired. Here are some of the highlights: