Twins Beckett and Freya Humenny will grow up together, but they will never share a birthday -- or even a birth year.

Beckett was born at 6:40 p.m. on New Year's Eve 2011. His sister, Freya, was born six hours later, at 12:26 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2012, and the nurses at Hennepin County Medical Center threw confetti to celebrate the new year and the extraordinary birth event.

"It was a party when she came out," said their mom, Stephanie Peterson, 30, of Wayzata. There will come a time, she said, when Beckett will probably tease his sister that she's a year a younger, but "I'm excited that they will have two birthdays," she said.

Hospital officials and birth center staff said they could not recall another time when twins were born just before and just after the new year.

Born at 34 weeks, both babies are small but healthy. Beckett was 4 pounds 11 ounces, and Freya was 5 pounds 2 1/2 ounces. They will spend a week in the newborn intensive care unit before going home.

For the parents, from now on the two-day holiday will instead be a two-day birthday.

"It used to be such a long day in the past," said Darryl Humenny, 33, the babies' father.