New Year's Eve Plans
Maybe Try To Not Do Anything This Year? (Day 41)
There was a time when I thought it would be neat to be in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Now-a-days, just staying up that late (any day) feels wildly undoable.
The very first New Year’s Eve Meena and I celebrated together, we went to a bar called The Black Brimmer and listened (maybe) to some cover band. I don’t remember. My better memories of New Year’s Eve have always been the one’s where we stayed home.
Little Bean was supposed to be a Christmas Baby. Then she was supposed to be a New Year’s Day baby. Instead, she’s a New Year’s Eve Eve baby so our New Year’s celebrations with her have always been birthday celebrations as well - nothing special, some ice cream cake and family. I can’t remember if she has ever been able to make it up to midnight yet to watch the ball drop.
Maybe we’ll try that this year.
On New Year’s Eve in 2014, I sat in our hospital room by the window with my one day old daughter and recovering wife and watched the fireworks light up the sky at midnight. Certainly a memorable New Year’s Eve but also a time filled with trauma and uncertainty. Maybe the last time I slept all the way through a night.
Technically, we’ve already celebrated 2078, the Nepali New Year, back in April. Sometimes, alas, it all feels arbitrary anyway. Everyone has a ball drop now. Everyplace has some band playing. There’s always resolutions. Turning over new leaves. Starting fresh.
We’ll try, maybe, to do none of that this time. Maybe the day before Jan. 1 can just be another day, filled with warm kitchens and books and dogs sitting on our laps.
And ice cream cake. That sounds just about perfect.
The You Voted For It Series: Curiously, of all the topics, the winner was New Year’s Eve Plans! I have to say that was a bit surprising, but I serve at your behest! We’ll continue this series over the next three days with the second, third and fourth place theme winners. I hope you enjoy and thank you for telling me what to write about.
Meantime, since the subject meant something to you all, tell us what your New Year’s Eve plans will be. Or let us know of a memorable New Year’s Eve you had?
Meantime, we hope you all have a great week and thank you for the suggestions, the reading, the shares and, o course, the kind donations to Day By Day. Onward!
Back when we were in a friend's band, we were part of the First Night festivities in his town (he was a selectman in the town, so the band was invited to play in the evening on New Years Eve). That was generally fairly fun. The coolest NYE, though, was when we were visiting friends on the island of Bonaire, near Curacao. Folks in the Antilles islands celebrate New Years with fireworks. But the fireworks weren't put on by the towns; everyone on the island bought their own, and set them off as midnight approached. I swear some of these people spent half their income on fireworks! It was the most impressive display of fireworks I've ever seen, and it went on for hours. They were everywhere!
These days we generally stay at home. Leftover birthday cake (I'm a New Years Eve baby, Dan's a couple of days before), a mug of hot tea, and we wish each other a Happy New Year at midnight. We're warm, we're full of cake, and there are no crowds. Works for us!
Best New Year's Eves
I grew up in a NJ city just c a stone's throw from NYC. When my parents deemed me old enough, they would reserve tickets for a Broadway Play or movie near Times Square that would let out justbin time to join the festivities. Back then there was no live entertainment like there is now. Just throngs & throngs of people waiting for that ball to drop. It was AMAZING! No matter how cold it was we never felt cold because of all the body heat ascwe were, literally, packed in shoulder to shoulder with no space for wind or cold air to get in. There were soldiers & sailors on leave, old folks, young couples - every race and genre of humanity imaginable all there in a spirit of unity of purpose: to say goodbye to the old and welcome a New Year of hope. When that ball dropped, EVERYONE kissed & hugged EVERYONE around them! There was no fear of pickpockets or muggings - just a SEA OF GOOD WILL for our fellow humans. I was blessed to experience this 4 or 5 times & still believe that rveryone should try to do it at least once in their lifetime. There is nothing like it - nothing even comes close!