New Years Rockin Eve

New Years around our house has become very white bread and boring over the course of time.  I remember as a teen baby sitting on New Years Eve, watching happy couples all dressed up in their 1960's finery heading out for a glamorous evening.  I imagined them sipping champagne and dancing the night away while I dutifully tucked their children into bed and then rang in the new year alone, in front of the tv, with Dick Clark and a Coke.  I vowed that as soon as I was "of age" I would not sit home alone on New Years Eve.

Can you guess what happened to that fairy tail?  The Kid and I used to dress up and party on the last night of the year; but something happened when children arrived on the scene.  It was a combination of paying the baby sitter and paying the piper.  I'm afraid New Years Eve celebrations lost their luster when I realized my children were not going to sleep until noon on New Years Day just because I stayed up too late on New Years Eve.  Things have gone down hill from there.  It has gotten so bad that last year we were invited to a party at our neighbors.... at 5:30 in the afternoon.  When the clock struck mid-night everyone raised their glasses, ushered in the new year, got in their cars and went home.  It was 9:00 p.m.  Our ingenious host had set his clock ahead 3 hours and sent everyone packing early.  We were in bed by 10:00.

This year we had house guests.  I was determined that we would remain awake and alert at the stroke of midnight. I had a plan.  At 5:15 we piled into the car, cooler in hand and headed to the beach to watch the final sunset of 2010.

We returned home to a gourmet meal of undercooked prime rib (The Kid had to finish it on the grill...I am so not Ina Garten) and finally settled in to watch the last college football game of 2010.  Knowing the game would go on until almost midnight I was confident that this year we would make it.  And if by chance we became droopy eyed I had a deck of cards at the ready to ward of sleep.

It almost didn't work.  "Settling in" was the problem.  We were all droopy eyed well before the 4th quarter of play and no one was remotely interested in my deck of cards.  In fact I think I could have danced naked on the coffee table and been met with the same lack of enthusiasm.  When the game ended well before midnight I was certain we were doomed.  But somehow we persevered, found the magic crystal ball in Time Square and counted down the last seconds of the old year with the jubilant crowd in the Big Apple.  At the stroke of midnight we raised our by now, long empty glasses, shouted Happy New Year and quickly scurried off to bed.

Lights were out by 12:05.  But we did it.  We rang in the new year at the stroke of midnight with good friends and raised our empty glasses in a toast to the old.  I'm thinking that at our age it doesn't get any better than that.