by Roz Warren

When I was a kid in the 1960s, my sister and I had our very own New Year’s Eve tradition. Every Dec. 31 on the stroke of midnight, we’d duck out of the party our folks usually threw so we could dial the operator and wish her a Happy New Year. We always felt sorry that she had to work at that time and miss all the excitement.

These days, at midnight on New Years Eve, my sister and I are usually sleeping soundly in our respective beds. But recently I began to wonder whether I was now the one missing out on all the excitement. So I asked my Facebook friends what they would be doing this New Year’s Eve. I received lots of responses, including the following:

•“Every New Year’s Eve I bake bread. I like to put the loaves in the oven one year and take them out the next year. I’ve been doing this for 27 years.”

•“I’ll be celebrating my 60th birthday!”

•“As usual, I expect that Mr. and Mrs. Excitement will be falling asleep on the couch in front of the TV at 10 p.m., waiting for the Times Square ball to drop. After midnight we’ll wake up and realize we missed it, get up, turn off the TV, wish each other a happy New Year and go back to sleep, but this time in our real bed.”

•“New Year’s Eve? Ambien does the trick for me!”

•“For the past 10 years, my best friend and I have cooked up a massive paella and shared it with our friends.”

•“We hold a progressive dinner with other neighborhood couples. We’re at the top of the hill, so we usually start it with appetizers, then on to the next house for salad, then the entrée. We end up at the final house for dessert and to ring in the New Year.”

•“We get together with a group of other families and rent a local skating rink.”

•“Here in Vienna we ring in the New Year with fireworks, which we view from a top floor balcony with friends. It is an awe-inspiring display. And last year, our friends’ son serenaded everyone with Auld Lang Syne on the trumpet.”

•“This year we’re hosting 10 of our sons’ friends for the night. More than a ball may drop.”

•“My hubby and I have never been big party people, so we always go skiing on New Year’s Eve. There’s hardly anyone else on the slopes!”

•“The two of us watch the same movie every year, 'The Days of Wine and Roses.'”

•“We’re having pizza, a tradition that began the year we were married, when we surprised my mom on New Year’s Eve only to find that she was going to a party. The next year found us at a hotel in China, where we happened to order pizza. Once we realized what we’d done, it became an annual tradition. Going on 27 years now.”

•“The tallest male has to go out the back door just before midnight and back in the front door at the stroke of the New Year. It’s an old Welsh tradition to remove evil spirits from the home and bring in luck for the new year.”

•“When I was a kid, our family always beat pots and pans to stop the bad spirits from leaving the old year, and my dad blew a horn. I no longer have the horn, but the pots and pans? Absolutely! My neighbors always know it’s me.”

•“We write our predictions for the incoming year and seal them in an envelope. Next New Year’s Eve, we’ll open the envelope.”

•“For the past 25 years, I’ve put my feet in the sand on New Year’s Eve … on the beach at Fort Myers.”

•“New Year’s Eve? It’s the sourest, most disappointing evening of the year unless you’re a long-term happily married couple. I make it my mission to go to bed before the ball drops.”

•“I won’t be celebrating. I have to work.”

•“This holiday season is a sad one for me. I just may ignore it altogether.”

•“Last year I suffered from severe post-partum depression, and my best friends became my family. So this year we’re celebrating life together by making a gourmet feast and being thankful that I made it through the year, as we were not certain that I would.”

Here’s wishing for a 2019 full of cake and champagne for all of us.

Local librarian Roz Warren is the author of “Our Bodies, Our Shelves: A Collection of Library Humor.” This piece first appeared on the website WomensVoicesForChange.org