Happy New Year!

When Lee and I were young..er we went to the bar for New Year’s Eve. I remember one year we were at a hoppin’ bar [which is now so unhip it briefly closed earlier this year] with a bunch of friends. The place was so crowded it literally took at least 30 minutes to get up to the bar to get a new drink. We started buying three or four beers at a time, just for ourselves, because we were getting thirsty waiting in that line. People were packed on the dance floor and I watched them from my cozy spot of carpet because all of the tables were taken and I refuse to go on a dance floor unless I’m so drunk I can barely stand. Plus you tend to spill your beer if you’re dancing and drinking at the same time.

A few years ago Lee and I decided it was too risky going out for New Year’s Eve. Cops are out in full force. People forget that driving drunk is still illegal even when celebrating the new year. And one person always has to be a designated driver, which essentially means that person has to watch everybody have fun. [But you do get take notes for blackmail situations in the future.]

One of the years we stayed home we drank at home. Lee and I went through a couple of bottles of wine and champagne. And it was just the two of us at home that year. At midnight we [meaning me] drunk dialed every single person we know to wish them a Happy New Year [or a Hassspppeee Nee Yerr! as it sounds when you've had a few too many]. I called people I haven’t talked to in years, but they were unlucky enough to be available via information. I’m sure they’ve changed their numbers and gone unlisted now.

But now that we are old..er, drinking has lost it’s excitement. We still stay up to watch the ball drop in New York and we even stay up until midnight our time to wish each other a Happy New Year, but now we do it at home with a Pepsi and/or lemonade. Yeah, we drink the hard stuff. We’re wiiiillldd and craaaazy.

This year we let the boys throw a New Year’s Eve party. So we have two extra fourteen year olds and three extra twelve year olds. Nothing says bringin’ in the new year right like partying with preteen/teenagers. They’ve been all over the Xbox, the PS2 and the computers. We’ve played a couple of different Scene It? games. I almost had to break up a fight [or two] between the “older” boys and the “younger” boys. [It's amazing how in their world two years makes such a big difference. But the 14-year-olds are in high school and therefore much more mature. Do you see me laughing?] Hopefully they don’t kill each other in the next half hour or Lee and I will have to drink this sparkling cider all by ourselves.

How are you bringing in the new year?