Welcome 2007

Well, another year gone by in a flash. When I was young it seemed like time went by a lot slower. I remember it seeming like an eternity for me to turn "legal" age, and now I wish I hadn't been in such a rush to get older.

I made cinnamon rolls and coffee for breakfast yesterday morning. Then we just hung around and did pretty much nothing till it was time to go to my folks' place for a little New Year's eve party. For some reason I was feeling especially nostaligic this year for things from my childhood, especially the citrus punch my mom used to make when we were kids, and also French onion dip and other kinds of snacks we used to have back in the "old days".

I made my punch but forgot to buy the frozen lemonade to put in with the pineapple juice and 50/50, but it still tasted good. It just wasn't as cold as we would have liked.

My two sons were there and my middle son's fiancee. My daughter lives on the east coast and couldn't make it back for the holidays this year and went with a group of friends to NYC to celebrate the arrival of 2007. I miss her so much and wish she could have been here with us. :-(

We had been playing Scattegories for awhile first, but mom kept forgetting what letter was rolled and writing down words for the wrong letters! So, we scrapped that game and decided to play something else. My husband and I had given my mom and dad a game for Xmas called Scene-It and we decided to figure out how to play that and ended up playing five times! It's got several ways to earn points: watching a movie clip provided on the included dvd and answering a question correctly at the end of the clip; answering questions correctly that are printed on cards according to categories; naming a movie via photos provided from that movie, and many other options. I would like the game just to watch and try to guess the answers at the end of the movie clips by myself. The clips are quite entertaining.

So, we stuffed ourselves, played games, and then watched New Year Chicago on Channel 5. What lame and/or washed-up musicians they find for these celebrations! And people are so drunk they are dancing to it, unaware of it's awfulness and having a grand ol' time. They are oblivious to how stupid they look and they probably won't even remember if they had a good time or not. Crowds like that make me nervous. I have never been a big fan of "clubbing" and dancing around in a club with a bunch of liquored-up sweaty people doesn't look like something I would enjoy. It's always funny to watch drunks on television, though. They all look so silly.

At midnight Chicago time, fireworks were set off from barges on Lake Michigan and at Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park and we can enjoy a perfect view of it all right in the warmth and safety of our own livingrooms. We can hear the music clearly that goes along with it and see it from various angles, even from the air. The flashing colors of the fireworks reflect upon the water of the lake. The whole city is aglow with lights. And when I watch this fantastic display and I hear the song "Sweet Home Chicago" I feel proud that I am and always will be a Chicagoan.

Happy New Year, everybody!