Desperately trying to think of something, and thought I might ask here in case there might be some bright ideas.
First of all, this is probably going to sound like we think of my Mum as a burden and don't love her, etc. This isn't the case - she is lovely and we adore her. It's just that... how shall I put it... sometimes it's a bit hard to accommodate everyone when she is there.
With that caveat, then - my Mum is elderly (75) and widowed, and lives with my sister L who is divorced. Generally Mum would spend Christmas Day with us - L is always invited but generally doesn't fancy it, not being the festive type. Boxing Day, Mum often comes to our house as well. New Year's Eve, she generally spends it with L one year and with us the other, and this year it's our turn. The plan is that she will come to our house - it will just be me and dh - stay here until midnight and then go home.
Thing is... last time she spent it with us - two years ago - it was DISMAL and I really would like us all to have a better time this year. (No point in asking L for advice, as she has always had exactly the same problem.) Basically, having my mother there rules out practically everything that we would normally think of doing on a New Year's Eve. I'll try to explain.
My Mum, first of all, doesn't drink alcohol. She's happy enough to have a Shloer (sp?) while we have wine or whatever. But...
Mum also doesn't drive. So one of us has to stay sober to drive her home. We can't send her home in a taxi because (in the unlikely event that we could get one on NYE) she's nervous of taxi drivers.
We can't listen to music as she's a bit deaf and it bothers her ears.
We can't watch TV for similar reasons and she just talks over it.
She's a bit shy with dh and doesn't tend to talk much when he is around. (Normally I see her during the day when dh is at work.)
We can't play games as she isn't able to understand them. (It's a long story but she suffered head injuries in her twenties and has a mental age of 9 or 10 years, plus of course she's now 75.)
We can't invite along others to make a party of it, as she's nervous and clams up with people she doesn't know, and L will be off having a well-deserved break.
We can't go out and ask her to babysit - although she will offer - because she would get depressed about my Dad when it came to midnight 
Also not quite happy about leaving her anyway (see above)
However, we want to make sure we have some sort of good time because every year (whether with us or with L) she always says she feels bad about "spoiling our fun" and I don't want her to feel like a burden. It's impossible to tell what she actually wants to do, as she says she'll just "fit in with everyone else" (!) but on this type of occasion it invariably ends up with her just sitting in a corner not talking, for fear of "bothering us". Last time she spent NYE with us, the three of us quite literally fell asleep - we only managed to see the NY in because I happened to wake up at five to twelve.
Christmas and Boxing Day are always fine, because she spends the whole time playing with the children and they all have a whale of a time. 
I just wish we could find a way for us all to get on so well for New Year's Eve. Would appreciate any sort of ideas at all, even for some sort of simple games that she could manage, perhaps? Or anything, really [confused smiley].
TIA,
xmascaroltygirl