New Year's is fast approaching.

To those of you who imbibe and party on New Year's Eve, I hope your travels are safe and you stick around for 2009!

I don't know if I'll stick around for 2009 or not, but my partying days are gone and I no longer feel an urge to return to them even though nearly every night used to be a party. So this year, as has been true of the past few, I'll hit the sack about 10. Hope it is a great year for you, Zada. You are one of my favorite people.

We're going to be at our house in the woods and our son and his family will probably be there also, unless another snowstorm hits and keeps everyone at home. Up there we usually stay home and celebrate New Years in New York on TV so we don't have to stay up until midnight.

Happy New Year Zada!

Carol

My husband and I don't drink, so I'll be as sober as a judge on New Year's Eve... although, they'll all be drunk.

My mother and sister will visit and we'll have pudding and laugh a lot. It will be the four of us, and the rats (who will each get an extra chocolate drop, except Cookie who'll want banana pudding).

I wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year.

I have a friend who hosts a gathering every NYEve. I'm looking forward to going again. These are close friends - all older single women - so we sometimes pack a pair of pajamas along with some appetizers and a bottle of champagne.

But I will probably stay pretty sober this year. On New Year's Day I'm making a pot of chili to take to my oldest daughter's house for her birthday, and I would rather not be hung over while I'm cooking.

She was the official New Years baby for my hope town, 42 years ago. The town merchants give us lots of very nice gifts, but her dad said it would have been better if she had been born a few hours earlier so we could claim her as a dependent on our income tax.

Ann,

The response about being able to claim a dependent is sometimes too common!!

I am glad you are spending time with your daughters.

Happy New Year.

Love, Carol

My youngest was born 4 hours before midnight on New Years Eve. We got to claim her for the whole year, and boy did we ever need all the help we could get. Now, she sometimes celebrates her birthday that night. Joy of joys!

Dick, you are too kind. What was it you needed?

See, Dick, seen through again.

That's they way it goes. At least it always has for me.

I have been invited to a party by my former neighbours, which is about a 20 minute walk from here, up hill both ways. No, I am not fibbing, it's true. Everything here is either up or down hill, and if you go far enough, you go up twice. Anyway, it is pretty rare for me to drink because it puts my blood sugar up and I look like I have been tippling all day, so I mostly avoid it. This way I can drive to the party and avoid the creepy guy's house on the big hill. Apparently, there will be charades and karaoke, which makes me kind of nervous. Did I ever tell you folks that I am an introvert?
I am taking Zada's pumpkin bread with me.

How did the bread turn out, Pam? I hope you had as much success and enjoy it as much as I do!

We don't drink, either. But even if we did, I think the snow and stormy weather would keep us home. He is usually sound asleep by 10 p.m. at the latest, and if I am still up, I watch it on the tv.

We really lead a pretty boring existence out here in the sticks. But it is calm and peaceful, just the way we like it.

I just hope to see all the same faces along with new ones on the 1st!

Pam,
I think going uphill is a fact of life. Seems you got it both ways in your winter wonderland. Having some fuel to go up those hills does help. Do you carry a flask?

When you get to old to run with the pack old dogs need to stay on the porch. Going to be staying on the porch this year. Family will be visiting helping us ring in 2009 gluttony will be the order foe the day.

New Years Eve usually means a three hour workout at the gym and then RC Cola, M&M's and Chips watching the Twilight Zone marathon and other Sci fi with my kids. Although this year my son has made plans with his girlfriend and my daughter's boyfriend is taking her to Boston. Looks like I'll be eating junkfood alone. My wife usually falls asleep around 9:30pm.

Not being a drinker, I celebrate with salt and sugar instead of alcohol.

I don't work out, but I'll raise a mug of hot coffee in everyone's honor at the witching hour!

May we all gain wisdom, be healthy and of good cheer in the new year ahead. (A little money and fame wouldn't hurt!)

My son and his family were coming up to the Northwoods from Southern Wisconsin, but there is heavy snow in the middle of the state so he is not going to try it, which is all right, but we'll miss them.

There are fireworks in the town here that we go to now and then. One year there was newly fallen snow and everyone stood in their boots, scarves and mittens and ooed and ahed appropriately. It was very magical. There is something about the silence in snow, and here there were the lights and sounds of fireworks to break that silence and the whole scene has stayed in my mind.

Happy New Year to everyone here.

Carol

No snow here in SA. We've had a couple of cold fronts; it's generally nights in the mid thirties and days in the low seventies. The biggest problem here is no rain. It's been our driest year since 1950 something. When the cold fronts come through, they bring a lot of wind, so we're under pretty constant fire hazard alerts. Fireworks have been banned here in Bexar and most of the surrounding counties as well. The local news stations are reminding everyone that the ban is serious business, so hopefully, everyone will follow it. Some people around here can be pretty dense.

Ann

Well I must say this place is not exactly what you would call a home for swingers. Isn't anybody going out on the town and get smashed, then eat pork and saurkraut at midnight? I always did that until the past few years.

Isn't anybody going to invite the first man they see on New Year's morning in for a drink so they'll have good luck the rest of the year?

If nothing else I intend to have a good measure of gin, then maybe a couple of shots of Irish whiskey and then top it off with a glass of Bailey's Irish Cream. The original, none of that fancied-up stuff. C'mon, what's New Year's without waking up with a hangover and then having a little hair of the dog?

My husband has been fixing an eggnog drink with Irish Creme, Irish Whiskey, egg nog with whipped cream and nutmeg on top. We'll probably each have one of those New Years' Eve.

One New Years Eve many years ago, we went to a party in town. On the way home we slid into a ditch out in the country. I was wearing a long dress and high heel shoes. We were about five miles from home and a mile from the nearest house.

And then, amazingly, a tractor came along. In it was the boy from the farm in back of us and our son. Our son said his brother was in the car coming along behind and would pick us up. It seems they saw an opportunity to pick up a few bucks by helping pulling cars out of ditches and giving people in them rides home if needed. We got their services for free.

Carol

Carol Troestler wrote:

My husband has been fixing an eggnog drink with Irish Creme, Irish Whiskey, egg nog with whipped cream and nutmeg on top. We'll probably each have one of those New Years' Eve.
Carol

I wouldn't mind five or six of those myself. Might as well ring in the new year with all my bells glowing.

The porch isn't such a bad place to be. Got some great rockers. Got my glass of vino. Don't have to worry about the drunk drivers.

Never really wanted to be a big dog, either...

Happy New Year to all of you!

Well, this New Years, I'll drop a ball from the living room ceiling as I have done every New Years since 1999. I'll come up with a list of predictions for the year ahead like I've done every year since 2002. That's what I'll do on New Years.

Zada the pumpkin loaf looks brilliant - I've not tasted it yet, letting the flavours meld. I am taking some to work tomorrow to share with the crew, and this weekend I am making cornbread - I can hardly wait!
I have a new drink to try for New Years (and might just have one - I tasted this on Christmas Eve and it's a delight). Bailey's Irish Cream, a half splash of Peppermint Schnapps and a splash of cream, shaken with ice and served in a Martini glass. It's called a Candy Cane or something like that. That's what is going in my flask Abe, for sure!

Cheers everyone!

I am glad to see that there are still a few of us with enough spirit to venture out and to imbibe. I am also glad that most of it sounds pretty safe. Keep the flask handy for the walk home Pam. Don't want you frozen! The alcohol can act as anti freeze!!