"It's midnight in New York City..."

New Year's Eve in NYC means the ball "dropping" in Times Square, Dick Clark counting down the last seconds before the ball drops, and sidewalk-to-sidewalk (and then some) crowds filling up the downtown streets of The Big Apple. (Do they still call it The Big Apple?)

And when it's midnight in NYC, we celebrate New Year's Eve right here. Downtown Houston has a New Year's celebration and street party, complete with music and fireworks, but (with apologies to Houston) they just don't do New Year's Eve like New York. It's the same on Thanksgiving with the Macy's parade.... no one does it better than Macy's.

So even though it's not yet 11:30 here in our little corner of the Hill Country of Texas, we feel as if we're already into 2011 because Dick Clark said so.

When I was a little kid, we would watch Guy Lombardo and his orchestra, live on TV from the NY Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. They would show the restaurant tables filled with people wearing paper hats with their diamond jewelry and their extravagant evening clothes. The band played on, the couples danced, and if I was at my grandmother's house, my Aunt Dolly and I would pick out the best ball-gowns and the most sparkling diamond necklaces. At midnight, after Guy Lombardo's band played Auld Lang Syne, Aunt Dolly would go into the kitchen and get little fancy glass cups with a scoop of ice cream for each of us.

Happy New Year..... to my Aunt Dolly, who will be 98 this summer. I don't think she waits up till midnight anymore. Come to think of it, I think she stopped doing that after Guy Lombardo passed away.