Happy New Year

I think that New Year's Eve is one of the most overrated days of the year. Try as I might, I can't think of a single year when everything went the way it was supposed to. Additionally the only one that really stands out in my mind was the eve of 1972. Gaylen, my fiance who was killed in an auto accident in 1972, my sister and her best friend Ann and I went to Cabinis Field in Corpus Christi to shoot off fireworks. Gaylen and I would become engaged 5 days later. My favorite thing about fireworks is shooting off bottle rockets and lighting Blackcats, holding them until they are about to explode and then tossing them into the air. It was really dark out and in my attempt to find the fuse, I touched the small cylinder with the punk. The blast went off in my hand. The pain was indescribable. Add to that my sister yelling at me all the way home that I was going to be in soooo much trouble and it's a wonder I didn't lose consciousness. After arriving home and recounting the story to my mother, she cleaned up my hand. Beneath the powder marks my hand was covered in large blisters filled with blood. After doctoring my hand Gaylen I went to sit on the couch where I cried myself to sleep.

There were a couple of years as a teenager when I went to parties. As part of a married couple there were years when we went out with other couples. But this year will go down as one of my favorites. One I will not soon forget. About three days before I thought that I would be babysitting while the girls went out. On the appointed evening Erin decided to stay in. I sent her off to the store to buy a basket full of comfort food. Since Elyse doesn't have cable, we decided to rent a movie and buy a couple of card games. By the time Erin returned from the store, Elyse had decided that staying in sounded like a good idea. So there we were, me and my three girls eating chips, dips, roasted chicken salad, chocolate chip cookies and drinking champagne. About 9:00 Erin put Alivia to sleep on Elyse's bed. We played cards and watched movies until 11:15 when we decided to tune in to the only TV station Elyse gets. We sat and watched until the ball dropped, on the delayed broadcast, at midnight. At the stroke of 12:00 central time, we toasted, kissed and hugged. Erin decided that we should go in and give Alivia a new year kiss. Imagine our surprise to find her sound asleep on the floor. I'm not sure when she rolled off the bed, but she must have been sound asleep as she hadn't even cried out. As simple as the celebration was, it was by far one of my favorites.