As a kid, I
remember New Year’s Eve being a night at home with Mum and Dad, our close
friends and a table set with special food such as Chicken Crimpies and French
Onion Dip. Sometimes we even had cabanossi and cubed cheese on toothpicks –
special stuff.
We kids
would play our usual games of hide and seek, teasing one another and running
amok. The adults would be sitting around chatting with a small glass of Liebfrau
wine in their hand (you know, the one that had the picture of the nun on the
label? It only came out on special occasions or when there was no Fruity Lexia
left in the cask).
As the night
wore on, the excitement would reach fever pitch for the kids as we waited for
midnight.
When the
clock struck 12, we would run like crazed animals up and down our street,
banging saucepan lids and shouting “Happy New Year!”, coming back for a round
of sparklers with which we would terrorize our siblings by chasing them to try
and burn them. Happy Days!
These days,
my New Year’s Eve is spent with my own family of husband and two kids. We bring
out the special chips and dip, antipasto platters and treat ourselves to a
special wine or bubbly. The kids run amok and become increasingly excited
(feral) as the night wears on. By the time 10pm comes, we’ve seen the 9pm
fireworks on TV, had some sparklers and there comes a lull in the proceedings.
Should we stay up till midnight or be boring and tell the kids “Well, that was
New Year’s Eve! Did you have fun? Time for bed!”
Now that the
kids can tell the time, they are no longer content with seeing the 9pm
fireworks and heading off to bed. They love to stay up, have a night swim in
the pool, (have the odd meltdown because, let’s face it, it’s VERY late and they've had WAY too much soft drink) and get ready to welcome in the New Year
with more sparklers, cheering and talk of which class they will be in this year
at school.
As for the
adults, our night it spent chatting and reminiscing on the year gone by and
comparing resolutions for the year ahead, which is all a bunch of rubbish
really as none of us really have any resolutions worth sticking to, but it
gives us something to laugh about.
This New Year’s Eve, I’m looking back on a year that was full of
exciting challenges, new connections and opportunities. What is my resolution
for 2015? I couldn't think of one so I Googled it. In a list I found of 101
easy-to-follow New Year’s Resolutions* number 59 reads:
Eat more
high quality dark chocolate - it’s loaded with antioxidants.
That’s good
enough for me!
Happy New
Year to you!
Rhonda xx
*you can view
the complete list here: http://www.simpletruth.com/community/blog/101-easy-to-follow-new-yeare28099s-resolutions/
