I stay at home with the family, just us, no guests. I absolutely don't go out on New Years. Don't really drink. We hang out, maybe play cards, make some snack food and are likely falling asleep before midnight. It's awesome!
Ever since I was Kid we've always taken New Years pretty light. My dad and I were usually on our annual ski trip at the same little Inn, in a little town called Oberammergau (< foothills of the German Alps). He would usually wake me up for fireworks and then we'd head back to sleep... Then we'd get up early and enjoy the mostly empty slopes, since everyone was still sleeping (well, hungover).
I still take it easy, much like Rossignol... We do cheese and chocolate fondue and play games with the kids, and are usually in bed before the ball drops.
Happy New Year to all of the MO family! The last time my wife saw in the New Year with me was for the millennium and she was 5 months pregnant with the first one. She is asleep by 10:00 since then. I saw it in alone until the kids grew big enough to stay up with me. We usually hang out, cook up some snacks and watch movies.
I don't know where the custom came from but around these parts most people usher in the New Year with a pork and sauerkraut on 1/1. We even make the kraut ourselves. I guess that's what you get when you grow up in an area called "cabbage hill" ...so named for the Germans that settled it.