Stroke of Midnight

Today’s wordpress daily prompt:  Where were you last night at midnight? Would you have wanted to be somewhere else?

I don’t think I can recall a time in my life when I wasn’t awake at midnight to bring in the New Year (easy for us night owls you see).  It was always a tradition when growing up to toast the New Year with Champagne (bleh).  My mother always drank hers with a hollow stemmed glass and I remember my sisters and I liked to watch it bubbling up the stem of her glass.  I sipped it every year and every year I gagged at the bitter taste as it seemed to burn a hole right through my esophagus.  It was also tradition for my sisters and me (and usually all the kids in the neighborhood) to stand on the front porch and bang pots and pans with metal spoons, making as much noise as possible.  I grew up doing that and thought everyone did that on New Year’s.

As I’ve grown older, I generally don’t like to be out on the road on New Years Eve so we usually stay home to watch the ball drop in Times Square.  But last night, my husband and I along with our oldest son, went out with a couple I’ve known most of my life.  We had reservations at Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill for a late dinner (it was steak for me– a rare treat).  We then went to our friend’s house and at midnight stood in their kitchen toasting the New Year with glasses of Sparkling Red Grape Juice.  Then the men retreated to the den to watch the  movie Ant-man.  My friend and I retreated to the bedroom to watch the Rodgers and Hammerstein 1965 version of Cinderella.  You see, we grew up together watching this so it brought back a floodgate of memories for us (and also gave us quite a bit of laughter). Recently we had reminisced how it used to come on TV only once a year during our childhood and what a big thing that was for us kids in the neighborhood to get together and watch it (just as The Wizard of Oz was such a big thing for us to watch annually).  We didn’t have VCRs and DVDs back then and so what a treat it was for us to watch that once a year showing.

After Cinderella, we watched Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors– a movie special about country music legend Dolly Parton when she was about nine years old (loved it!).  We headed home in the early morning hours and were grateful there wasn’t much traffic on the road.

Would I have wanted to be anywhere else?  NO.  I was right where I wanted to be– celebrating the New Year with family and great friends.  You can’t beat that.  Happy New Year!

Gail ♥

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