"What Are You Doing for New Year's?"

Okay, I seriously don't get it.  What happened to 2009?  If you're like me, the whole year disappeared in a blink of an eye!  Poof!  Gone!!  Tomorrow is the last day of 2009, Friday it will be 2010!  A full ten years into the Millenium, the Century, the Decade!  (And I am not inviting any discussions of whether its this year or next year.  When I start writing 2010, it seems like it should be ten years!)  No matter how you slice it, the whole thing changes over at midnight tomorrow night!

So "what are you doing for New Year's?" 

When we were still living in Chicago (and we were MUCH younger), we used to go to a New Year's dinner/dance sponsored by an organization we were involved in.  It was great!!  We got dressed up, had good food, got to dance a lot, had champagne and other "fun" liquids, and get New Year's kisses from a lot of friends!  An added bonus was that the event was held less than a mile from our house....so we didn't have to worry too much about the drunken idiots on the road.  It was a lot of fun!  I miss doing that a lot.  The Big Guy doesn't enjoy dancing very much, while I absolutely adore it.  So when they stopped giving the dinner/dances, I was heartbroken....Mikey was not!

After that we spent several years with our 3 very closest friends, at their home (also very close to where we lived) and we talked, played games, and talked, and ate, had champagne, and talked, counted down to midnight and had kisses all around, talked, and stayed out waaaay too late!  That was terrific! Then, we moved to CA and lived there for 10 years.  No fun dances, but we did spend New Year's with some new friends, so it was okay! 

Then we moved to Austin.  We've been here 9 years and we have haven't done anything exciting on New Year's since.  We did spend a couple of New Year's with Ratchlet, T.A. and M-T-G, but it was all very low key. 

We probably wouldn't have made any plans for this year either, but I came up with a plan to have a PARTY!  A real, bona fide party with games, paper hats, food, and our very best friend!!  Maddie-the Great will be our sole guest, but that's okay!   We didn't invite anyone else!  We told her she could stay up to welcome in the New Year at midnight!  That will be a first for her and she is very excited.  Of course, Ratchlet and T.A. will enjoy having their own New Year's Eve celebration,  but Poppa and Grammy and M-t-G will have as good a time together every bit as much!!  If M-t-G actually manages to stay awake til midnight, we'll get kisses from our favorite girl!  Isn't it funny how our priorities change over time??

And I bet, if I ask her really, really nicely, Maddie might even dance with me!