New Year's Eves I have known and loved

An accounting:

When I was a teen, my dad would buy champagne and on Dec. 31, serve it with orange slices draped over the edges like shrimp in a cocktail. I dare say I haven't had that since then. The most notable thing I can remember about Daddy and champagne is the bottle of pink bubbly he put in the freezer and then promptly forgot. Alas for him--and everyone else within hearing distance--my mother was the one who opened the freezer and found crystals of pink champagne scattered over everything.

In the 70s, we were young marrieds and I can't recall a single NYE celebration. We tended to be tired a lot (college, grad school and babies will do that). However, it did seem that The Apartment showed up on TV every NYE. We'd start to watch it and then fall asleep. This was pre-VHS remember, so we never did see the conclusion until we taped it one night in the 80s and watched it the next day.

By the 80s, we had a social circle and a couple gracious enough to host a host of us for NYE. We'd get a babysitter to stay the night and not care whether we came in at 2 or 5. (Just did that once.) Memorable time there? The night some guy came in off the street, filled up a plate from the buffet, and left through the garage. Everybody thought somebody else knew him. Only the next day did we figure out that no one did.

Next section of years finds us wondering more where our teenagers are than where we will be. We tended to stay home, have a few friends over or go out to dinner. I remember a LOT of looking at the watch and clock to see: isn't it midnight yet?

But as the millennium changed digits, we joined 50 or so of our nearest and dearest out at a summer youth camp. If the world were going to end (and of course it already hadn't ended, computer or otherwise, across the dateline), we would be among happy friends. Karaoke, big bonfire, beautiful weather... we all stayed the night on cots and air mattresses and ate breakfast before going home. The next year, the weather was beyond awful, but we gamely went to a big hotel in Dallas for their spend-the-night-dance-until-one celebration. We even went back the next year. Sadly, that hotel no longer holds that particular party. Since then, we've tried another hotel's offering, but it just wasn't the same. Four years ago, we were in London, and watched fireworks from a churchyard and celebrated with our new in-laws. One very snowy NYE, we had a cozy time at a house in the country. Driving home, the moon was so bright on the snow, we hardly needed the headlights to see.

Tonight we'll go to a friend's house and sit at the fire and visit and be very happy to be where we are: warm and safe and healthy.

And really, what else is there to celebrate?