The last time we engaged in this folly we were in the company of two other couples who were involved in raging arguments for the entire evening. Both the women spent the entire night in the bathroom crying and swearing. The food was abysmal and the only thing accomplished that evening was the lightening of our wallets.
It was freezing cold and snow was piled in great frozen heaps in the parking lot. We scurried to the car, which as I remember produced very little heat. We scrape the inside of the car windows and swore we would never attend another packaged New Year's Eve celebration. And we haven't.
A few years later we spent New Year's Eve in a small family owned tavern, surrounded by a small group of friends. We were in love and just embarking on our lives as adults. I remember a very sweet and loving kiss at midnight!
When our son was not quite two years old the Farmer was in the hospital on New Year's Eve, recovering from surgery. Our plans to visit him were thwarted by a sudden snowstorm. My son and I sat alone in our little house, staring out the window as huge snowflakes fell at an alarming rate. The Farmer was treated to a small celebration by the nursing staff.
I'd love to hear your stories of New Year's past, or plans for this very evening.
Why don't you come along with us the evening? Bundle up and engage in our rural Illinois tradition of watching the corn drop. What's a corn drop you ask? New York may have it's high tech ball but we have a five foot illuminated ear of corn that drops at midnight. This is last years preparation.,
Children danced in the snow.
Newlyweds, who had recently moved here from California experienced their first snowfall. They danced too!
You're invited. Bundle up really, really well because I promise you it's going to be cold tonight. Wear a hat, gloves and wrap a scarf tightly around your neck. They'll be hot chocolate or champagne at midnight.
Because here in the midwest we know how to celebrate.
Check back tomorrow morning for photos. You never know who might be dancing in the snow. It just might be you!
21 comments:
Usually we celebrate with a great game of RISK that usually ends around 4 a.m.! This year we've been invited to take the kids to a family sleepover and go sledding with the cousins the next morning. I'm still taking the game of RISK along in case anyone would like to join us! Happy New Year!
We usually stay at home together on New Year's Eve. I remember when my kids were younger and they would try SO HARD to stay up to midnight and just couldn't make it - or they'd be crying because they wanted to try but were just so tired. A couple of years ago we went bowling with a few friends of ours and late in the evening (like 10) we went to the hospital to visit our friends that just welcomed a new baby girl earlier in the day.
Tonight, we're eating Chinese food in and watching the latest Batman movie. We'll see it any of us makes it to ring in the New Year.
Happy New Year!
Liane
ps. I love the tradition of the corn drop!!
Oh, I so wish we could come and join your New Years celebration, it sounds fun.
We usually go out to dinner or have friends over to our home to celebrate...we have drinks and play cards or board games. This year our plans were for just the two of us to go out to an early dinner and then as midnight approaches..strap on our snowshoes and take a walk. The dinner plans are most likely going to have to be canceled as we are getting a pretty good snow storm...however, I will make a pizza and we will play scrabble and then we will go snow shoeing!
Have a most wonderful New Years!
Many blessings,
Doreen
Oh I remember the great corn drop from last year...what fun!
We'll be in bed by 10, 11 at the latest. You'd never know that we were newlyweds as we've slipped into a rather smooth routine already. ;>
This year, the girls are going to an all-night party (with boys! but we trust them all, or at least most of them, lol)and dh & I will be home alone with a Christmas bottle of limoncello and the tv. Good times.:)When I was a teenager in Massachusetts I always celebrated NY Eve by going to midnight church ("watchnight service") and singing "Blest Be The Tie That Binds Our Hearts in Christian Love" holding hands with everyone in the church at midnight. Then the youth group kids would haul out of there to a huge sledding hill for hours and hours, and then we'd have breakfast out at 5 am. Hope you have a nice evening and a good new year!
It will just be us....as we've gotten older, we've decided we probably shouldn't invite friends over like we used to......we can't stay awake til midnite!!!! But, as always, we will try! Love the corn dropping!! What fun. Becky
We always have a house party, and that always includes games. We invite our close freinds and family. My Mom & Dad are getting older now so they leave way before midnight. We usually play a board game, which leads to lots and lots of laughs. We have lots of picky foods and generally have a great time. We try to make it up to midnight, but some of us tend to snooze on the couch before the ball drops!
Dear Suzanne
I wish you a happy new year 2009. May your dreams come true.
All the best
Cheyenne
Well I don't have the proper outerwear for the corn drop but I would really love to be there. Happy New Year! I'll be there in spirit. (I know I can stay up till Midnight in your parts!
Thanks for a great years as your crappy commentor. I look forward to more crappy commenting next year.
I like the idea of a Corn Drop and dancing in the snow :-)
This year we were going to go into town, so I could practice taking night shots of the fireworks with my 35mm SLR camera. However, the fireworks have been cancelled (bah humbug on the casinos and city fathers), so we will be staying home.
If I manage to stay awake, I will watch the ball drop while sipping on hot chocolate laced with Amaretto. The hubby will probably be snoring. :-)
I think the New Year that sticks most in my memory, was the one where I spent most of the early hours of 1967 in the ER. I was getting my head stitched up, after someone had dropped a beer bottle from a ferris wheel. Until then, we had been having a really fun time ... a picnic dinner at the beach, surfing, etc ...
Have a very Happy New Year, Suzanne.
We will, this New Year's eve spend the evening with our best friends-as we have every year for the past 22 years. We don't make it to or past midnight sometimes but it's the fun and tradition that matters.
I remember your corn drop from last year and I was hoping you would share it with us again. I hope that you and yours have a lovely and safe night.
I will be asleep by 10 pr 11...probably! Everyone that we like to visit with, live at least 50 miles away, so we don't usually get together on New Years. It's just safer to stay home and harrass my children! I usually wake them up at midnight with a big smooch and send them off to bed. Soon enough it will be the other way around lol. I hope you and Farmer have a great time tonight!
We are planning a feast for just hubby, myself, and our 2 kids. Grilled steaks, crab legs, and shrimp! Mmmm. We are going to build a bonfire out in the corral (we live on a farm in Nebraska) and are going to roast marshmallows and make smores and ring in the New Year. Not an elaborate celebration but we will all be together, safe and happy.
Kristina
Fun site!.. My aunt sent me your link because she thought I would like all your photos... She was right!
My hubby and I are little farmer hopefulls, so this is a fun spot!
I have a standard tradition or staying home, having a glass of eggnog and reading a book before going to bed, usually long before the clock strikes 12. :-)
Happy New Year to you and the Farmer!
Blessings,
~*~
For the last 15 years we have stayed home, had a nice dinner, watched a movie with the kids (now only 1 left at home), ate ice cream, skated on our own ice rink under twinkling lights, watch the ball drop in NYC, then banged pots and pans at midnight. 15 years of the same wonderful things. Happy New Year my friend! Perhaps you'll hear our pots and pans over the chilly miles.
I would just love to start that sort of tradition out here. I am a bit further west than you but I think in the same time zone? Central??? Anyways, what do you think we could drop out here in the Great Plain states? Something that doesn't blow away easily comes to mind. We often get so windy that you could sail across the Great Missouri River. Problem there is you keep running into land bumps... I have to think a while on that one.
can't wait to see the pictures. We usually spend a quiet new years eve at home or with good friends. But tonight I am typing quietly in a hotel room in TN. we are on our way to a caribbean cruise and then visits with relatives on way home.
Otherwise you might have just seen me dancing on the snow by the dropping ear of corn. What fun and creativity.
We never celebrate New years eve, it's just the two of us and our boy cat. Nothing about going out into the night turns us on, it's cold, and there's nothing out there, we haven't seen before. So we stay cuddled up next to one another with the cat, and eat pop corn, watch a little 3abn programming, and listen to the poppers go off outside. Listening to all the hoop la on tv concerning New years, is a big turn off to me, and I'm sick of it. And I'm naturally a positive person, with a positive outlook, I just can't stand all the bs surrounding a New years celebration.
Since our New Year's Eve started out with a bang (new grandbaby born that morning!) it was only fitting that it go out with a quiet evening of thankfulness for the blessings of the year. That means that by 7:00 in was in my pajamas watching tv, but not really watching, in bed and reflecting on the things that had impacted our lives - holidays with family, special church events, the rise and fall of gas prices, the downturn of the stock market, the peaceful evenings sitting on the deck watching the water, the birthing of a child. Events may change our lives but only we decide how they change us. blessings, marlene
Your homegrown Illinois celebration sounds so fun...a corn drop - what a hoot!
For years (22+) we have enjoyed fondue with family, usually inviting a few friends to share a quiet evening of food and fun. This year we broke with tradition and attended a Pinochle Party in town (5 tables!). Given the snowy, blowy weather, I think I prefer to stay home and play pinochle, but that means someone else has to be out in the weather in the wee hours. I missed our traditional fondue, especially because dinner on 1/1 was always so easy... leftover fondue, of course!
Post a Comment