From my family to yours, I like to wish you a very Happy New Year! To ring in 2012, I took my family to the Orange County Great Park for Great Night. The OC Great Park is the only place in California (or the entire west coast, for that matter) where you can celebrate New Year’s Eve with your family in a fun, secure environment and still be home or at another party by 10pm. How do they do that? They set the clock to East Coast time and celebrate when Dick Clark drops the ball on Time Square.
Irvine’s Family New Year’s Eve party features live music, dancing, great food, carousel rides, games and activities for the kids – all in a safe, alcohol free environment. The event reflects music and images of each decade from the 1940s to the present. Local dance groups perform dances from each era, and everyone got down as a DJ spun tunes from the disco era in the Hangar 244 Lounge. They even got a 10 foot disco ball!
There were military vehicles and vintage cars on display and Sally got to create artistic crafts, and enjoy the carousel ride. We were also able to send New Year’s Eve photos to friends and family and post them on Facebook from one of four special high-tech photo booths on site.
Southland Mega Groove, a popular 5-piece band with versatile vocalists, rocked the night away with songs from across the decades. At 8:30 PM, the Park transformed into a party atmosphere in time to ring in the New Year with a pop of streamers, party hats and noise makers. Great fun for the entire family and I was able to get Sally back home and in bed by 10PM. The best part was, the entire event was free ($10 for parking)!
I have to tip my party off to the City of Irvine for coming up with this concept. Irvine is an EXTREMELY family friendly city. It’s one of the reasons I made Irvine my new home and events like this just shows I made the right decision. Happy New Year everyone!
