New Year’s 2008 January 8, 2008
Posted by Diane Bird in : All Posts , trackbackHow have our traditions changed over the years as we welcome in the new year? When I was a child, I don’t remember if my parents went to parties or hosted a party, but they probably did when they were younger. Mother used to joke about how we should just go out on the porch and “bang pots together”, and it didn’t matter if we did it at midnight or not. Funny how I don’t remember actually doing that; probably it was just a joke, and it has entered our “tradition” even now, because Mike and I sometimes tell people that’s what we’re going to do.
I remember staying up to watch the celebration in Times Square on TV, which was always wonderful and exciting, watching the ball drop. Time was, not so very long ago, we could hear fireworks and happy yelling at midnight, sometimes so loud it woke us up. We would just smile and go back to sleep.
Mike and I laugh now about how we welcome in the new year with the folks in Europe so we don’t have to stay up so late. The end of the year for us now means getting out the W-2s and wrapping up our business fiscal year. What a drag that is compared to a celebration!!
What did the rest of you do for New Year’s? Do you send cards or emails? Do you go to parties? Do you “bang pots”? And how about those pesky resolutions; anybody still do that? 
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Hi Diane, I feel this is becoming a two person blog but am glad you are posting…..
For years we got together with several other couples for a New Year’s party. We played tripoley with pennies and it was a lot of fun. At the end we divied up the “pots” that weren’t taken by whoever had the best poker hand. Earlier years we then had a big meal at midnight….As our tummies got more resistant to late night eating we changed to bringing snacks and eating them all through the night. A couple years ago our group changed. A death, and other medical problems so now all that has changed. Don and I slept through the arrival of the New Year and it didn’t make much difference. We probably had clearer heads the next day! The better to watch all the bowl games!
Now January is well under way, Christmas decorations are put away for another year. We don’t even both with New Year resolutions. Though we did join the Fitness Center with the resolve to get a walking program under way. So far we’ve been doing it too!
I’ve been entertaining my various groups and that is fun. By the way what are you reading?
In Book group we just read Anne Tyler’s book, “Digging to America” about two couples who adopted children from Korea. Next month is “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult (about a school shooting). Don is reading a book he got for Christmas from Dave. It is “The Coldest Winter” by Halberstam. He is enjoying the book but
his comments have been very critical of McArthur in all that Korean thing. I seem to remember Jay Hanway saying or feeling the same thing at the time.
Well, enough from me. Until next time….
Jackie, I think you’re right about this being like a letter exchange between you and me. I hope others will submit as time goes on. Perhaps another email to everyone would remind them the blog is alive and well (?)… or not so well without them (?)…
I think it sounds wonderful, the parties that you and Don enjoyed with your friends on New Years Eve for so many years! That’s one huge advantage of living in the same place for a long time (though I’m sure it has its disadvantages, too), because you are able to develop deep and long-standing relationships and friendships. It’s awfully hard, though, when you do have those close friends, to watch them become ill, then hospitalized, and sometimes die. Gruesome, but I’ve discovered that I look at the obits first when I get the newspaper. Ach.
I’ve put Christmas away, too, but haven’t written thank-you notes yet, so there are still some vestiges of Christmas lingering about. I still believe people enjoy getting a written “thank you” in the mail, so I continue to do it, though I certainly don’t require it of others. I did teach Miki and Marty to write thank you’s when they were little, but by the time Eric and Danielle came along (not all that much later, actually), I no longer insisted on it. A couple of reasons, I suppose… Four kids takes up a lot more time than two, so some of the things I taught the first two went by the wayside with the second two … and we were just a whole lot more laid back with our second two kids, less demanding, less strict. Interesting now to see how they differ because of that different approach to child rearing. Well, they would all have turned out differently anyway just because they’re different people, but there are a few things we can point to that demonstrate the stricter upbringing of the first two.
Great that you and Don are on a walking program. Mike and I have increased our walking; Mike to two 40 minute walks outside; me to two 30 minute sessions on my elliptical exerciser. The best part for me is that I have a book rack on my exerciser, so I get to read!!
You mention your book group and I’m wondering how you are enjoying Picoult. I’ve not read “Nineteen Minutes”, but have read something else by her. This inspires me to put up another post; maybe others would like to share their suggestions for good books!
Happy New Year. I can share that Bob and I enjoyed a quiet evening at home and then went to bed early! We had been travelling for the prior week (to NJ to visit my family) and were just exausted.
As for books, I think that could be a good discussion. Surely many of us are big readers.
As I sit here and read the words of others regarding thier doings on New Year’s Eve I think, “what did we do that evening?” I can’t remember for the life of me! This should mean that we had a really good time, but I know we spent the evening at home! How good a time could that have been?
For years we spent that evening at friends who always threw a formal affair, well-catered, nice home on a lake, fireworks at midnight, the whole works. They have since discontinued the party. “Getting old” is the term we all used as a reason. I kind of miss renting a tux once a year tough. But I don’t miss feeling as though I’d been hit by a truck at the start of each new year.
Now I spend the early days of the new year raking together leaves in which the babies can learn to frolic. Living so far South allows me to put off those chores for much longer than can family back in Nebraska! I get a few good pictures out of the deal too.
Here it is — February 6, 2008 — and I almost can’t remember what we did New Years Eve! But I do know that we probably stayed up until after midnitd — wished each other a Happy New Year — and went to bed!
I was also interested in the discussion on books and glad to get the address for paperbackswap.com. I do alot of reading and when I run low on books I scour the garage sales and if all else fails, go to the used book store in G.I. However, I like lighter fiction — something that holds my attention. However, I did have a book recently, “Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald. When I bought it, I thought it was a true story about a girl who came from Iran to the U.S. to seek a husband so she could stay in this country. However, I didn’t read the fine print and soon discovered it was fiction but written by a gal who was married to an Iranian (turned U.S. citizen) so actually the background was no doubt true. I also like Historical fiction and I have recently read alot about the WW2 (which was not fiction but factual) that makes you understand alot more about what our soldiers went through on the battlefront. Just horrible!
Just had to get in my two cents worth!