by Phyllis McCrossin
Happy New Year!
For many, 2020 was not the best of years. I’ll be honest, I’ve had worse.
But I’m not certain if the “worse” years were because they truly were worse or if it’s because I’ve learned attitude has a lot to do with perception of “good years” and “bad years.” It’s a concept I can’t help people understand because it’s something one has to figure out for themselves.
January 1st is more than a day for looking forward into the coming year; it’s also a good time to remember the past.
New Year’s Day was my older sister’s birthday, so besides celebrating the New Year, we also celebrated her birthday. Family friends from Chicago drove to Michigan for the holiday and the days leading up to the holiday were spent, sledding, ice skating, going to the movies in Holland and ringing in the New Year.
Mom, as usual, pulled out all the stops. She and Dad would drive to Holland to shop at the A & P for party foods that were not available at the local grocery store. At the time, Heath Township was a dry township, so it also meant buying Galliano for Golden Cadillacs – the drink of choice for the women (who were of age, of course) to ring in the New Year.
In later years, the holiday meant driving to my parents’ home with our children in tow and spending the evening ringing in the New Year with a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. It was always “Men against Women,” and the women had the distinct advantage of having my older sister on our team – she would memorize the cards in her spare time.
By this time Mom had switched from Golden Cadillacs to Bourbon Slush, a drink that could knock you on your backside from heartburn in a heartbeat. That burning sensation was a built-in deterrent from over indulging.
Our children grew and moved on, celebrating the New Year in less sedate ways. Our last family gathering for the New Year was at my sister’s home in 2000. By that time it was just Mom, Dad, my older sister, my younger sister and her young children, our granddaughters, King and me.
This celebration was spent waiting to see if the world would end as clocks rolled over from 1999 to 2000. Unless this is all an illusion, it did not.
This past New Year’s Eve found King and me babysitting our grandsons while our daughter went to some friends’ home for a quiet socially distanced gathering. I fixed the boys whatever they wanted for dinner. We had ice cream (a huge no-no in their home), ate popcorn and I read several chapters of Harry Potter and the Soccer’s Stone to them before bedtime. (I told them we would try to finish the book before Poppa and I left for Michigan in the spring).
I am going to say I made it to midnight… if you want to count it being midnight on the east coast when I finally called it a night.
No matter how you celebrated, my wish for the world for 2021 is health, happiness and peace.
