When I was a little kid, I can remember how elegant my parents and their friends would look on New Year’s Eve, with the men in suits and the women wearing sparkly evening gowns. My kids’ generation is a bit more informal: most of their friends arrived here yesterday wearing pajama pants. Our midnight celebration was fairly casual as well: we were all milling about the kitchen area, piling food onto our plates when Butters looked at his cell phone and said, “Hey, according to my phone, it’s 2010.”
Boy in Black is so nocturnal that midnight seemed early to him. He suggested that we pick a place where midnight falls at about 6 am EST and celebrate THAT new year so that at least staying up would be at challenge. It seems like the younger group all took that challenge to heart because when I woke up early this morning (out of habit), the gang was still gathered in the living room, playing card games, wide awake.
This afternoon, when everyone was napping, I sneaked out to the house of my friend Makes Bread for her annual New Year’s Day gathering. It felt good to be amongst friends, eating hot soup and cookies on this blustery cold day, everyone talking about their hopes for the coming year.
