Auld Lang Syne

So I hope everyone had a Happy New Year. I certainly did. My wife and I spent it with my daughter Lis and her man at their condo in Plymouth, NH playing the Mad Magazine card game. No craziness, no running naked through her neighborhood; nary a decibel above 75 was heard outside the condo.

The reality of my last ten or so New Year's Eve celebrations is it has become a struggle to stay awake to watch the ball drop. And truth be told, I have not been successful a number of times in recent years. But last night I managed to last until; oh, must have been at least ten minutes after the toast at midnight before we all wrapped up our last game and went to our respective beds. 

I have always had a somewhat jaded view of New Years. I never considered it held more promise for the future that followed it. Just a convenient two days made available for us to be loose dogs for a night. As long as no one was hurt, the fallout was usually minimal. I say usually. 

There was that one time I tried to sleep in a tree, uh, well, I woke up the next morning laying on the bundled roots at the base of that tree and it took my back a couple of weeks to work out the kinks. Witnesses to my stupidity said I almost made it the fifteen feet to the first branch, but for some unknown reason I let go and landed hard. As I was still breathing, they left me there and moved the party back in the house. 

When I was young and numb, my whole focus was on the party. Thinking about changing anything or promising to mend my hedonist ways had no place in my life. It was a party night that afforded me a whole twenty four hours of recovery time so I could show up at work on the Second bright eyed and bushy tailed. 

At some point early in my marriage, the parties became more intimate with less people and I rarely stayed up long enough to watch the sun come up on the 1st. When Lis was old enough to sit still in a movie theater, the next twenty or so New Year's Eves were spent at the movies. It became a wonderful family tradition that kept the adults responsible and out of trouble.

When My wife and I settled into the empty nest routine over a decade ago, the family tradition became just a reason to get together and enjoy each other's company. And it is odd. While I partied hardy with the best of them back in the day, the new year's celebration I covet the most are the more recent ones. Sharing the evening with friends and/or family is so much more important to me now than anything I did when I was younger. Because now, I know there is a finite number of new years to come.

Hope 2022 brings what you wish for and that if nothing else, it is a year you can look back on fondly.

Keep it 'tween the ditches, 

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Naturally, no tribute to the new year would be complete without Guy Lombardo and the Royal Candians' rendition of  "Auld Lang Syne". This song always made my mom cry.