HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I can remember when I was young and still living at home and when the end of the year would roll around, it meant excitement for my parents. They had a group of friends that they would get together with on New Year's Eve and they would take turns going to each other's homes to play games and bring in the New Year with joy and festivities. I really liked it when it was my parents' turn to have the party at our home because then I could hear all the laughing and fun they were having on that magical, special day of the year.

Because of that, I secretly could hardly wait until I was married so that I wouldn't have to stay home ever again on that night to tend my little brothers or be asked to babysit for a neighbor's kids. That was all boring stuff. I wanted to experience the anticipation leading up to the big event. I wanted to feel the thrill and exhileration of participating in such merriment and partying. I wanted to know that at the end of each year, I had something big and grand to look forward to doing with my husband.

Well, let me tell you how real life has played out for us. We started having kids right away and so right there that put us in a predicament because we had to try and get a babysitter on a night when everyone else was looking for a reliable person to watch their precious, little ones. As the years went on and we had more freedom in the babysitting department, we found that we had little options for fun and thrills and would end up doing not much of anything.

If we did happen to decide to actually do something, it usually consisted of going out to dinner and by the time we made that decision, the only time options to dine at a nice restaurant were either really late or really early. So, we'd opt for really early and be home before most people were even thinking of leaving for their exciting evening out. And it was getting so bad that in recent years, we wouldn't even stay up until midnight to bring in the new year and would get frustrated if we heard noisemakers outside doing their celebrating and waking us up.

Perhaps the word "fuddy-duddy" comes to mind while reading our sad state of affairs. Well, not any longer!!! We actually had something fun to look forward to this year and had a whole month's worth of anticipation leading up to it. The Empty Nesters Group in our neighborhood decided to have a New Year's Eve party and we were invited. We could hardly wait!!

The party was held right next door at Roger and Kathy Jacketta's home in their beautiful, newly-finished basement. Such a great place for a party. We were greeted at the door by our hostess who insisted that all the men wear party hats and the women wear princess crowns. The men got a little crazy when picture time rolled around.





Here are our host and hostess of the evening--Roger who is wearing his party hat and Kathy who is getting the food table ready.



We played ping pong.


Sat around and talked and ate some delicious food that everyone had brought.


We played games together.


And we even stayed up until midnight!


We turned the T.V. on right before midnight and watched the ball drop in Times Square while drinking our nonalcoholic bubbly and blowing on our noisemakers.


Fun time for all of us and I finally feel like I had a very respectable New Year's Eve celebration after all these years.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!