The New Year

Three days into 2010 and we haven't had a warm day yet. This cold weather is getting very depressing. Gray days instead of blue skies, layers of shirts and vests and shawls, and the heaviest coats when we go out. Maybe if I put on a pair of red shoes and click my heels together three times, the Good Witch will send some good weather back to Texas.

For New Year's Eve, we drove up to J & J's house. On a warm summer-y day, it's a nice walk from our house to theirs, but on that last day of December, the wind was fierce, the temperature was low, and it's too dark to be walking around here at night anyway. You just don't know what else is out there crawling, creeping and slithering next to you. J & J invited a few of the neighbors over for "nibbles and sparkling stuff." We got there at 7:30 and left a little bit after 11:00.

Of course, after that get-together, we started talking about the parties we used to have in the old house. So many people..... 25 at the least, 60 at most. The dining room table heaped with potluck casseroles and desserts, the Charades games, the live music bands we hired over the years, the costume parties, the gift bags.... six weeks' worth of planning (at least) went into each of those parties, but all the work was worth it.

I told my husband we've got to start doing that again here in the new house. We won't have as many friends and neighbors here for the first few parties, but that didn't happen at the old house either. I think our first party there had less than eight people, plus the two of us. We met new neighbors and friends along the way, and just kept inviting them to the parties. The couples that loved the parties wouldn't miss one of them; the few who weren't interested in a night out that really wasn't "out" just sort of disappeared. And that was fine..... house parties aren't for everyone, but we sure did try our best to make every single thing special for those nights.

The next holiday now is Valentine's Day, and I told my husband that we should just go ahead and invite everyone we know here for a party. And no, it's not going to be the same, but that doesn't mean it won't be good.

I've spent the last few days taking down the rest of the Christmas decorations. Everything is packed away in the storage closet. That closet is looking like a jig-saw puzzle, with all the Christmas boxes tucked way in the back, and all the other holidays lines up towards the front, in the order they occur during the year. (I'm either super-organized or super out-of-my-mind.)

The big tree is still up in the dining room, but I've taken off all the ornaments. My husband has to remove all his vintage lights.... then get one of the neighbors to help him get the tree out of the house and into the woods. This tree will become a brush-pile of its own, for small animals to hide in and under, and the birds will build nests inbetween its branches. The tree worked out very nicely in the dining room, and I think that will be the permanent spot for all of our real Christmas trees here.

Our outside cat Gatsby has been more of an inside cat with the cold weather we've been having. That cat surprises us all the time. My husband said he thought Gatsby would be more of a street cat, but he has proven us wrong-- he's a lap-cat and really likes to be inside the house. Still, on the days when the sun is shining, Gatsby is sitting by the back door and staring at the door-frame, as if he's willing it to open. And magically, someone comes along and opens the door for him. It didn't take him long to show us what he needed.

2010. Another year. When we got home from the neighbors' house on New Year's Eve, we turned on the TV and watched the recorded showing of the ball falling in New York's Time Square. I don't care how long we've lived in Texas, and how much we feel as if we belong here-- when it comes to New Year's Eve, there's just no replacement for watching the crowds in those NYC streets. I've been watching that since I was a kid, when Guy Lombardo and his band brought in the New Year with style. Guy Lombardo is long gone now, but his memory is still alive and well on New Year's Eve for everyone over a certain age who celebrated with him in New York.

Happy New Year. To repeat my favorite phrase of "The Art of Racing In The Rain," by Garth Stein.... -- that which you manifest is before you.