Winter storms are making a frequent appearance this year. For New Year’s Eve, why not celebrate the beauty of the season? We are once again hosting a New Year’s Eve party that embraces the chilly weather.

Not black-tie affairs, our gatherings are family friendly, with kiddos and adults alike welcoming the new year together. (Remember when you were a kid, and you were allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve? It was a really special, right?)

We have fun sharing appetizers we’ve all made, catching up, enjoying music and games. The kids usually hit the dress up box, then huddle in a room to plot and practice this year’s brand of theater, and about an hour later treat us to a rowdy show.

We leave up our Christmas decorations that we worked so hard on – this year a fun and funky batch of original ornaments. I’m happy that this year our tree is now decked in multicolored LED lights — love ’em, and their power savings.

We usually break out the carefully saved New Year’s Hats. Ours were looking a bit tired, so this year we crafted our own design by recycling old Christmas gift boxes! There’s a peek at one of the designs (top). The hats turned out fantastic and are easy to make. Read the simple step-by-step instructions on my guest post over at Care2.

But the highlight of our New Year’s Eve Party is always winter itself. It’s become a tradition to bundle up and create a snow sculpture on our back deck. People come armed with ideas that are plopped into a hat. One of the kids reads aloud all the suggested chilly creations. We take a vote and from about 10 to midnight we build the winning sculpture.

The year we had gobs of snow it was The Sphinx and a pyramid. There was the “Stega-snow-rus” that we found in that snow sculpture book. The alien and UFO, and the hand-carved igloo.

Most of us agree that the best creation to date was this snow man hot tub (our buddy Steve Lambert’s brainstorm) complete with assorted chilly characters donning the best in wild winter fashion and beverages. (We don’t actually have a hot tub – just built one out of snow.)

So this year, embrace the winter weather wherever you are, your family and friends, and have a party that celebrates the season.

Happy New Year! Let’s make 2011 the best yet!