{"id":11873,"date":"2013-12-27T08:32:31","date_gmt":"2013-12-27T01:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/?p=11873"},"modified":"2013-12-28T01:19:50","modified_gmt":"2013-12-27T18:19:50","slug":"a-bright-spot-in-our-new-years-eve-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/a-bright-spot-in-our-new-years-eve-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bright Spot in Our New Years Eve Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Christmas seemed to come and go really fast this year. \u00a0I suppose it’s because of Thanksgiving being so late. \u00a0The last couple of days, our family has been relishing in the fun of playing with all our kids’ toys and my husband and I have been enjoying time off from work. \u00a0To think about the impending New Year, makes my heart skip a beat. \u00a0Time just rolls by way too fast. \u00a0If only we could slow down time.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, we have decided to host a New Years Eve celebration at our house this year and it’s time to begin planning for the next event. \u00a0We have all of our Christmas decorations up…I try to keep them up as long as possible to make the season last longer. \u00a0So the house looks great, minus toys and cookie crumbs everywhere!<\/p>\n

We plan on having families come over for the party, so I anticipate, we’ll do the Times Square Ball Drop celebration twice, since we are on the West Coast. \u00a0Once at 9 pm to celebrate with our Eastern friends and to celebrate with our kids when they are the most awake, then again at midnight to celebrate West Coast style.<\/p>\n

With all of the Christmas lights we already have around the house and outside, I’ve been trying to figure out what we could do to add something new to the mix that would highlight New Years Eve. \u00a0I thought of adding a disco ball, but a real one is too expensive. \u00a0We even have a toy disco ball, but it’s not as powerful as I wanted and besides, it projects in color, and I was looking for something more enchanting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

I visited Walmart to see if by chance I could find just the right item, preferably something techy. \u00a0To my delight, I found a metal outdoor LED 10 inch sphere for $19.98. \u00a0I love its silver reflective color and it has 48 LED lights scattered throughout the ball for that extra glitz. \u00a0The LED lights have a warm glow to them, not the typical bright white look. \u00a0The packaging says that these lights use 80% less energy than traditional lights, which hopefully means they are less taxing on the batteries and last a long time. \u00a0It also states that if one light burns out, the rest will stay lit. \u00a0Yay! \u00a0Gotta love today’s technology!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

Luckily, the LED sphere comes with a with a 12 inch cord and battery pack, so you don’t need to worry about plugging it in an outlet…perfect for hanging it from the fan in our family room. \u00a0To my surprise, the battery pack takes 6 AA batteries, that’s a lot of power for a lightweight LED globe. \u00a0I affixed it to my ceiling fan light and it looks beautiful. \u00a0After I got down, I was very happy with it but began to think, it’s too bad the sphere didn’t come with a remote control. \u00a0I’ll have to get a chair to turn it on and then a chair to turn it off each time.<\/p>\n

I was relieved when I looked at the packaging a little more closely. \u00a0There is a built in timer in the battery pack that turns the ball on for six hours and then turns itself off for 18 hours! \u00a0How cool is that? \u00a0Now I see why it needs the extra batteries, to manage the time. \u00a0In addition to the time, when you turn the sphere on, you can choose from 3 settings:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Steady On –<\/strong> the lights are always on for 6 hrs.<\/li>\n
  2. Flash<\/strong> – the lights flash on and off<\/li>\n
  3. Phasing<\/strong> – the lights gradually turn on and then gradually turn off<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    I think I’ll choose the Phasing setting for New Years Eve celebration and I’ll turn it on at 7 pm so it will last through the night, at least until 1pm. \u00a0 The techie in me delights in things like this. \u00a0I remember as a child, there were few lighting options for decorating \u00a0for Christmas. \u00a0We didn’t have the blower lawn decorations, our lights would turn off one light burned out, and our timers were a bit antiquated. \u00a0Today’s decorations, well, at least some of them, have built-in timers…there’s less thinking and more enjoying.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"New<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    I’m looking forward to New Years Eve and saying goodbye to 2013 and eyeing 2014 with great anticipation. \u00a0And there’s no better way to do it than surround myself with those I love and friends I hold so dear.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    No matter what you’re doing this New Years Eve, whether it’s throwing a party, going to a party elsewhere, or enjoying the peace and quiet of home, we wish you a bright New Years Eve celebration and a wonderful 2014!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"walmart_mom_disclaimer\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    We found the perfect New Years Eve ball to light up your family room and add some sparkle to your New Years Eve celebration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[793,6,14],"tags":[61,2070,2071,2069,445],"class_list":["post-11873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessories","category-dads","category-moms","tag-christmas","tag-led","tag-lights","tag-new-years-eve","tag-party","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/p-content\/themes\/atahualpa342\/images\/articles\/2013\/12\/New-Years-Eve-Celebration-Walmart-Moms-15-Main.jpg?fit=2070%2C1155&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}