Is there any party night out there with a bigger buildup than New Year's Eve? Not to get all Debby Downer, but spending 100 bucks a head at some fancy gala with champagne toasts, 3 buffets and an open bar, surrounded by micro mini dress wearing Mariah Carey wanna bees in f-me pumps and bedazzled purses never did it for me. It's a night that shoulders great expectations for new beginnings, redemption, salvation even, but always ends in a big whimper when the ball finally drops and everyone is kissing some stranger with the same enthusiasm and true affection reserved for shaking hands in church.
But have you ever had a New Year's Eve that lived up to all the hype? Not me. I've always come home disappointed at the anticlimax.
I wasted several New Year's Eves as as single girl chasing the elusive dream of the perfect night. There was my freshman year of college when i visited my roommate out in Chicago, and we went to the requisite Gala at some fancy downtown hotel. I knew nobody there, miniskirts are not my thing, and my best asset - my smartass mouth- did not project well in a crowded function room, so let's just say this was a complete letdown.
Then there was the year of the Boston harbor cruise (who's bright idea was this in January?), one or two ski weekends that weren't so bad, and the nights I happily spent on the sidelines on the other side of the bar watching the dream chasers perform their annual ritual while stuffing my tip jar.
After getting married, the pressure was off to have a BIG night. New Year's Eve was back to another family get together, which suited me just fine. Growing up, New Year's Eve was the night we'd order way too much chinese food and hang around the house playing cards. I used to drive my Dad crazy with my dealer's choice - he hated wild cards with a vengeance, and when I was finished calling for one-eyed Jacks, the man with the axe, red twos, black fives and the ten of clubs, well he would just about go apeshit. Then I would call for a 50 cent ante and put all pennies in the pot. What I wouldn't give to see that look on his face one more time.
One of the fondest New Year's Eves I recall was 1998 in Ireland which we spent anticipating the arrival of our son who was due on New Year's Day. A windstorm raged on outside, and our drafty little Ivy Cottage had been without electricity (ie, heat!) for several days. We had to hunker down at my in-laws who had no electricity either but didn't rely on that "new fangled" central heating - their house was heated the old fashioned way by burning turf, coal and assorted household refuse in a huge range in the back kitchen. Heat is a relative term here folks, it was either scorching the face off you in the back kitchen but you could see your breath in all the other rooms, which unfortunately numbered the sole bathroom among them. Not that I dared even go try to go for a wash in there as the door didn't lock, and any of my husband's 14 siblings, assorted spouses and kids liable to come through the door at any second. And the tubs were so friggin deep over there that by the end of my pregnancy I needed a backhoe to get in and out.
We all sat around that night in the candlelight swapping stories,playing cards and a few songs. It was simple and sweet - like something out of "little house on the prarie" for me. When the lights came back on, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that the mood was ruined.
So for me, New Year's Eve is best spent with the ones you love sharing the small moments. I'm old enough now to know the New Year's Eve hype is just that.
