Happy New Year.

I can't believe it, 2010 is rapidly coming to a close, and I'm at home, alone, suffering from a cold that I caught from the littlest one.  Thanks sweetie.  We weren't going to do much for the night, but then our neighbors popped over mid-week and invited us to a party at their house!  Fun!  Now hubby and littlest one are over having fun and I'm stuck home with a cold!  Matt did ask if I could muster some energy up and take one for the team, but I just feel rotten enough that I have no game tonight...so instead I called my momma and we reminisced a little about New Years Eve celebrations of the past.

I grew up in a very small town...very small - so small that if you happened to blink as you were were approaching it, you'd miss the turn to main street!  I guess one year, one of the neighbors decided it would be fun to host a New Year Eve celebration out in his shop.  I don't remember much of it - since I think the first time we went I was about 4 or 5, but I do remember sitting on hay bales, eating a delicious meal, and doing some dancing.  From what my mom tells me, it was NEGATIVE 40 degrees out, the neighbor provided the meat for the evening, and everything else was provided pot luck.  I remember it being VERY fun, despite it being frigid; mom told me that people would show up to the dance, and leave their 'outfits' running the whole evening just to be sure that they'd have something to drive home when midnight hit.   I don't have many memories of the parties, (I believe he hosted it for 4-5 years) but I do remember the smell of the hay bales that were provided as chairs, and the smell of the greasy shop that it was being hosted in.  I remember the hay bales being hard, but oh so cozy to fall asleep on when there was a pile of coats to lay on.  I remember one of the 'older' girls out kissing! one of the boys, and I'm sure she was mad that all the little girls were spying on them!  He he!  I remember someone sprinkling corn meal on the cement floor so peoples shoes would slide easier to dance.  I also remember getting to go spend the night with Gramma and Gramps after one party, who were staying out MUCH later than mom and dad, and seeing the town drunk passed out on the floor under the hay.  At the time I asked my Gramma if he was dead, and why he was under all that hay, and she assured me he wasn't dead, that he was just tired and was taking a nap...

After a few years of that the party was moved into town and was never quite the same...still fun, and still fun to have something to go to, but that smell was gone, and was never the same.  They still do it to this day, and every New Years Eve that I'm away from home makes me think of the celebration that will be happening there, and what a good time it is.  Tonight it is -20 degrees there but the party will go on.  Oh how I miss it.

Happy New Year to my itooshort readers!  May 2011 be a blessing to you and yours!