Saturday 31 December 2011

I've done New Years Eve!

I did used to be a party girl.....gosh yes....New Years Eve was once a complete day of baking. I would start early making pies, dips, things on sticks, and anything else I could think of....it was all good fun and the children helped....a bit..
By around eight in the evening I would have tables laid out with enough food for a small army and then guests started to appear....hundreds of them or at least thats what it seemed like. Dancing, singing, seeing in the New Year was a fairly raucous occasion in the small close where I lived....we would lead off in a congo  all around the close, in and out of other peoples homes...with their permission of course....and everyone would end up at mine very merry and almost certainly on the way to passing out...Anyone still around at about three in the morning would get shepherds pie to see them on their way. Those unfit  to drive slept where ever they could find a quiet spot...often with the dog.
I have done New Years Eve!
Now I look back on previous years but with no longing for it to come back.....at the time I loved it...I joined together all the different strands in my life on that one occasion, school colleagues, am dram bods, church types, neighbours, Uncle Tom Cobbly and all.....
It was all good fun and when I left to go off to live half way up a mountain I know that people complained bitterly  but that part of my life had come to an end.
Tonight , still suffering from sea food poisoning we may not even drink much if at all....we shall be able to see all the fire works for miles around....over the water they look wonderful and the dog can't hear them any more!
We will watch the rubbish on the TV in time honoured fashion and I will have to be in bed fairly early to get to church in time for the eight am...
But thats all good....If I'd never done New Years Eve it might feel different but I have...and now I can feel glad for everyone else celebrating as I ponder what the next year might bring....


I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'
And he replied, 'Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!'
So I went forth and finding the Hand of God
Trod gladly into the night

And so can we all this year and always.. Amen

Written by Minnie Haskins.


1 comment:

Kathryn de Belle said...

For me, that is one of the consolations of getting older, i.e. I don't actually want to do that which I can no longer do. Relaxing, in its way!