Happy New Year 2011! · 1 January 2011
My wife, The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi, does not think that New Year’s Day is a holiday. Much less New Year’s Eve. We have seldom stayed up to midnight to bring in the new year even though she is an admitted night person. And we have only hosted or gone to a couple New Year’s Eve parties in the time we have been married. Most of the time, we bring in the new year in bed. Sleeping.
When I was a kid, we almost always brought in the new year with a party at our or some relative’s house. We would eat, play games, eat, chat, eat, and sometimes even remember to countdown and have a toast at midnight. It was always a great time of celebration and just being with family.
We do have relatives nearby and friends that we do lots of things together with, but The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi and I do not often celebrate on New Year’s Eve. I think that we sometimes use our kids as an excuse to go to sleep instead of bringing in the new year with at least a kiss at midnight.
One year, Thing 1 and I stayed up to bring in the new year together without The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi. His brothers were babies so his mother and I were always tired. He wanted to stay up and watch fireworks on TV and see what the big deal was. So Thing 1 and I just watched the countdown and the fireworks on TV together while everybody else slept. We said, “Happy New Year,” and gave each other a hug, then went to sleep. It was just another night in the big scheme of things.
Now that the younger boys, Thing 2 and Thing 3, are older, they want to stay up late every night. They want to stay up even on school nights and even on nights when they know they should get that precious needed sleep. And they want to be with everybody where the action is. Especially if there are lots of people around and we are on vacation. It only makes sense. After all, we all want to be included in the fun.
This year, we are bringing in the new year with some neighbors who are moving soon. We have only known them for a short time, but we have become good friends. Family really. We have celebrated a wedding, a graduation, birthdays, and un-birthdays together. It seems that something is missing if a day goes by without some sort of contact from them. We will miss them when they go. Which brings us back to our New Year’s Eve.
Although our celebration this year is bittersweet, we welcome the new year with open arms. Hopefully, we can stay in contact or get in better contact with all our loved ones this year. Hopefully, we get to celebrate more festive occasions with our friends and family. Hopefully, we can all stay awake long enough to bring in this and many more new years together with hugs and kisses and cheers of “Happy New Year!”
The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi and I may not be the most exciting people in the universe, but we can occasionally bring in the new year with a bang. We know we will see both tears of joy and tears of sadness in the new year, but we welcome whatever it brings.
I hope 2011 brings you peace, joy, prosperity and many celebrations (kicked off with or without a New Year’s Eve party). And, of course, enough sleep to enjoy it all. Happy New Year everybody!
© 2011 Michael T. Miyoshi
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