Today is the big day!...............A day of looking back and the only day of the year when not only is it Okay to do so, it is expected and almost required!
It's a day to reflect and it's a day to just remember. I have spent the last six months since Jake died reflecting and when I began this new blog I vowed to use this blogging format to write of TODAY and let yesterday stay in the past. So today I am remembering and I am smiling and I wanted to share with you some of my yesterdays at this time of the year.
When the kids were young and New Year's Eve rolled around they were as excited as they had been the week before because our family was about to PARTY!
I was still married to my first husband and while we had a pretty disfunctional and bad marriage, we seemed to be able to put aside differences at New Year's and tradition held us together as a family. We rarely "went out" on New Year's Eve as for one thing we were always strapped for money, we lived in the country so everything you did, you had to drive and drive to get to, we had four children at home so we opted to make our celebration there and together.
We ALWAYS made party food of chips, dips, cookies and special things like meatballs with crackers or pigs in a blanket and usually had egg nog left over from Christmas. We bought a bottle of Cold Duck for the occasion and had sodas.
The stereo never stopped as album after album was stacked on the turntable of the Magnavox; songs by Charlie Rich, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave and Aretha and Janis Joplin...along with Johnny Rivers, John Denver and maybe some Elvis.
The six of us sat around the chrome and vinyl dinette
and held our annual Marathon Monopoly Game. On and on and on it went. Who could own the most property without getting mad and overturning the table. Who would be the shrewdest, the most tender; giving money to a sibling who was broke, who could be bribed, and the most important...who would be the Banker.
Who could stay out of jail and it seems like I landed there more than anyone! I never was the banker because I was always running into the kitchen for more food.
There was never a discussion of what we'd do. It was just a given.
We all crooned along with the songs and both of us loved to dance so we'd get up from the game and dance part of a song together and resume the game after the song was ended.
And at the stroke of midnight, with TV on so we knew when the ball would drop we all six toasted the New Year in with a glass of champagne.
Such a simple evening and never veering from tradition. This post was easy to write cause it was the very same year after year after year!
Happy New Year to all and I wish for each and every one of you that 2011 will be filled with the Grace and Blessings of our Lord and Savior!
"You were chosen according to the purpose of God the Father and were made a holy people by his Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be purified by His blood. May grace and peace by yours in full measure".I PETER 1:2
