New Years Eve 2007

In the distant past New Years Eve was a time only "the old" apparently were allowed to celebrate. I'm sure you remember asking your parents where they were going as they got prepared to go out on that special night filled with unimaginable revelry. Or perhaps you remember the time when your parents invited friends to your home so you were relegated to your room where you were supposed to be sleeping but you really were silently peeking out into the living room to see what all the laughing was about. I know that sentence was too long but honestly I didn't know how to punctuate it, so there.

Eventually you were allowed to get a taste of New Years Eve. Do you remember the thrill of being allowed to stay up to watch the ball drop in Times Square in New York for the very first time? You probably ate exotic foods like Ritz Crackers with cut up summer sausage and cheese or some of that great Velveeta cheese dip made with melted cheese and salsa. I'm certain you also remember then being shuffled off to bed at 12:05 am. The excitement for you was all over.

The time came when I was always awake after midnight so New Years Eve lost a bit of its shine. There were parties of all sorts I attended with friends then.

Then after some time our kids arrived and they went through the same stages we had.

Now that I am more "mature" New Years Eve is nothing very special. If I can keep my eyes open I can stay up late any night I choose. So what do you do for fun on New Years Eve?

Well let me tell you. You invite anyone who wants too to come to the church fellowship hall to be together with others. Our church did just that and we had a great time.

I believe 17 had signed up and 40 came. It wasn't long before laughter filled the room. At first we laughed at each other in those ridiculous hats but then we laughed as we played games together. We started at 4:00 PM and ended somewhere after 9:00 PM. Finger foods of all kinds were spread out on a serving table and we grazed all evening. Every so often there was a drawing which meant another person won a door prize. Probably the best part of the evening though was playing games. One group played some sort of dominoes game. Another couple of groups played a word game that was very frenetic and got people all worked up. Yet another table played Trivial Pursuit. But every table was having fun. It was hard to hear sometimes because of all the laughter coming from all over the room. The evening was a great success.

Then when the evening broke up we went home and still managed to stay up till the bewitching hour. I remember hearing "we missed it" coming from the other room. We forgot all about watching the ball drop but we made it to the new year anyway.

Shalom