How I rang in the New Year
As I prep for tonight’s New Year’s fun (check out the curlers!), I review my ghosts of New Year’s past:
Ages 1-5: With my family, we lived in Britain my first 6 years, and I was an only child. I believe New Years was usually celebrated at a family friend’s house where I fell asleep on a couch with the other children well before midnight. This was back in the time when children were seen and not heard… oh for simpler times!
* note: my dad loves to tell this story about when I was 2 or 3 and a “friend of your Mother’s – some YOBO” thought it would be funny to switch the milk in my sippy cup for either Brandy or Sherry, I never remember which (possibly because of being fed this drink as a child and damaging my poor developing brain). I threw up I am told and my father has forever compared future YOBOs he identifies to this original YOBO. I love that word.
Ages 6-12: Suddenly in Canada, we gained a larger Indian family and spent New Years at either the Dhars, the Kouls or at our place with the three families and at least 5 other kids who became as close to little sisters and brothers as my own. I remember actually making it to midnight with this cohort of cronies, and driving our parents mental with our madness.
*note: I also remember FANTASTIC pot-luck dinners of Indian food that have never ever been seen since that age. Those ladies could (and continue to) cook. This is also the first time I took note of the fact that my mom always seemed to drive us home… interesting.
Age 12-18 - I actually did the exact same thing in these years as in the previous 6, I just put it in to highlight just how much of a loser I really was. Yes, I had friends. Yes, they went out without their families on New Years, but not in my little community. No way mister! Sigh.
Age 19-22 – OMG. I actually went out on New Years! Though I usually had a curfew of like 12:15am New Year’s Day… oh and my Mommy picked me up from these ‘parties’ I was permitted to attend.
note: My first time at a Gauntlet party (I wrote for the U of C’s newspaper and it was called The Gauntlet), I was witness to so many things I can never speak of (I didn’t drink at that tender age), but some of the ones I can speak of include watching a bunch of people throw their coats onto a christmas tree and then trying to rescue those coats a few hours later when they started to burn. Oh and the puke in the bathroom. That was nasty. Lots of puke.
Age 23 – 26.5 – Ah the newly-married-not-yet-mommy years. My first married New Year’s was spent working at the CBC on the 2000-today show… my brief 6 weeks in TV land between CBC News Online and CBC4kids. Jason came down to the broadcast centre to be with me when the clock struck twelve. The years after that we spent with various friends at their houses and at bars, but that first one is the most memorable for this period of time.
Age 27 – Who am I kidding? We probably fell asleep at 8pm with our 5-month-old baby.
Age 28 – 32 - Searching for people with families, that’s what we do… we’ve done Nathan Phillips Square, we’ve done friend’s houses that are also filled with Baby Einstein distractions and we’ve done our parent’s houses (which, ironically takes us right back to my experiences for Age 1-12, even down to the sad fact that my father offers my husband a drink and not me).
note: Seeing this from the angle of a parent is weird, but Connor genuinly seems to enjoy adult parties… it helps that he thinks he is 35. I am watching for when he gets bored… but it would ALSO be nice if more of my friends created friends for Connor! hint hint!
