New Year's traditions for Chicago families

By Laura Amann

New Year's is often seen as the last stop on the holiday train: a time of over-indulgence and annoying noisemakers or plain exhaustion. But it's also a time of reflection and hope.

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Re-viewing the past year

As any parent will tell you, kids love watching movies of themselves or going through photo albums of when they were younger.

When Carrie Wujek of Naperville was growing up, her family pulled out old family movies. "We would have an appetizer dinner and watch family movies on our old reel-to-reel projector with the big snap-down screen," she says.

Watching home videos and flipping through albums also provides a good incentive to transfer video off the camera and onto a format where it can be enjoyed by everyone.