another year over/and a new one just begun
Jan. 3rd, 2007 03:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
molly_oI haven’t posted in a while now, I’ve just been too caught up in the holidays. And really, the holidays -- from Thanksgiving through to New Year’s -- have just been wonderful this year.
I won’t bore y’all with the details, but I managed my shopping a little differently this year, and I not only avoided scrambling around trying to find something appropriate at the last minute, but I also gave everyone on my list something I was pleased to give them. The ratio of gift-giving fun to gift-giving stress approached infinity.
We got a big, real tree (as we like to do) and decorated the heck out of it with a mish-mash of ornaments: faded glass orbs from my grandmother, the wooden soldier and felt pears and crocheted snowflake my mom made for the church bazaar 25 years ago, and an enormous leopard-print ball I received from a coworker, some miniature disco balls I found at an after-Chrismtas sale last year, etc.
We also put lights up on the front of the house, and it makes me happy just to see them every time we drive past after dark. (I grew up with “tasteful” decorations on the house – typically just a modest wreath on the front door – but this is the second or third year I’ve strung lights out front, and I think it’s definitely a tradition we’ll keep.)
On the 17th and the 23rd I/we exchanged gifts with friends, the 24th we spent with my dad and his partner before coming home to sleep under the tree, and the 25th RM & I opened gifts for each other before going over to my mom’s. It was all very low-key and wonderful.
And then a week later I had the nicest possible New Year’s Eve. In the afternoon we went to an it’s-midnight-somewhere party hosted by some friends with small kids for the benefit of other friends with small kids. During the evening we made lists of wishes for the coming year, and at “midnight” (7 pm, Eastern time), we jumped in the air and ate 12 grapes as quickly as possible and kissed everyone nearby so that our wishes would come true. I am trying very hard not to dwell on things that are still just possibilities, but it’s not a huge stretch to imagine bringing our own small kid to the party next year.
Then we left for another party, at which the hosts alternated seven courses of food with seven courses of cocktails. The cocktails were inspired (and also, for the most part, sipped in small quantities, so that the total of alcohol consumed was not excessive); likewise, the food was delicious. Shortly before midnight we copied all those fools on youTube and sliced the top off the champagne with a sword (actually, a kukri -- the weapon of the ghurkas -- inscribed with Elvish). Finally, we tried a German new year’s tradition called Bleigriessen, in which you melt lead and then pour it into cold water and try to glean clues to your future from the resulting abstract shapes. RM and I agreed our shape was definitely the head and neck of a dragon/sea-serpent, but none of the Bleigriessen interpretation sites I’ve found give an explanation for that particular shape.
Of course, sooner or later I had to pay the price for all this loveliness: Yesterday I came down with what appears to be viral gastroenteritis -- diagnosed via this nifty diarrhea flowchart (heh). I’m wallowing on the couch, drinking lots of apple juice and gingerale, and washing my hands at every opportunity. (Is it a bit much to post the chart? It’s just that I know there are other Internet-self-diagnosers on my flist, and it’s such a nifty chart.)
I won’t bore y’all with the details, but I managed my shopping a little differently this year, and I not only avoided scrambling around trying to find something appropriate at the last minute, but I also gave everyone on my list something I was pleased to give them. The ratio of gift-giving fun to gift-giving stress approached infinity.
We got a big, real tree (as we like to do) and decorated the heck out of it with a mish-mash of ornaments: faded glass orbs from my grandmother, the wooden soldier and felt pears and crocheted snowflake my mom made for the church bazaar 25 years ago, and an enormous leopard-print ball I received from a coworker, some miniature disco balls I found at an after-Chrismtas sale last year, etc.
We also put lights up on the front of the house, and it makes me happy just to see them every time we drive past after dark. (I grew up with “tasteful” decorations on the house – typically just a modest wreath on the front door – but this is the second or third year I’ve strung lights out front, and I think it’s definitely a tradition we’ll keep.)
On the 17th and the 23rd I/we exchanged gifts with friends, the 24th we spent with my dad and his partner before coming home to sleep under the tree, and the 25th RM & I opened gifts for each other before going over to my mom’s. It was all very low-key and wonderful.
And then a week later I had the nicest possible New Year’s Eve. In the afternoon we went to an it’s-midnight-somewhere party hosted by some friends with small kids for the benefit of other friends with small kids. During the evening we made lists of wishes for the coming year, and at “midnight” (7 pm, Eastern time), we jumped in the air and ate 12 grapes as quickly as possible and kissed everyone nearby so that our wishes would come true. I am trying very hard not to dwell on things that are still just possibilities, but it’s not a huge stretch to imagine bringing our own small kid to the party next year.
Then we left for another party, at which the hosts alternated seven courses of food with seven courses of cocktails. The cocktails were inspired (and also, for the most part, sipped in small quantities, so that the total of alcohol consumed was not excessive); likewise, the food was delicious. Shortly before midnight we copied all those fools on youTube and sliced the top off the champagne with a sword (actually, a kukri -- the weapon of the ghurkas -- inscribed with Elvish). Finally, we tried a German new year’s tradition called Bleigriessen, in which you melt lead and then pour it into cold water and try to glean clues to your future from the resulting abstract shapes. RM and I agreed our shape was definitely the head and neck of a dragon/sea-serpent, but none of the Bleigriessen interpretation sites I’ve found give an explanation for that particular shape.
Of course, sooner or later I had to pay the price for all this loveliness: Yesterday I came down with what appears to be viral gastroenteritis -- diagnosed via this nifty diarrhea flowchart (heh). I’m wallowing on the couch, drinking lots of apple juice and gingerale, and washing my hands at every opportunity. (Is it a bit much to post the chart? It’s just that I know there are other Internet-self-diagnosers on my flist, and it’s such a nifty chart.)