We celebrated quietly last night, compared to other New Year's Eves we've enjoyed, such as this one from December 31st, 2000 ...
This is the picture I look at when I'm in need of an ego boost! The lady on the couch in the background had a good laugh as we posed this photo.
But last night was spent quietly at home. Agnes stir-fried a wok-full of Shrimp Lo Mein and we opened a bottle of Champagne to wash it down with. We spent the rest of the evening curled up in our chairs in front of the fireplace, watching episodes of the first season of "Bones" from Agnes's Christmas DVD set. The neighbors were out in the cul-de-sac setting off large numbers of fireworks, much to Punky's dismay ... she doesn't like loud noises, and spent an uncomfortable evening cowering under Agnes's chair. She refused to go out for her before-bed walk, so I'll have to coax her out in a few minutes.
So 2007 slipped quietly away, and 2007 has its foot in the proverbial door. We're invited to brunch at the home of one of Agnes's co-workers later this morning, and afterwards we'll drop by to visit Leya for a while before coming home to finish some of the housework that didn't get completed yesterday.
On other fronts, although it's difficult to see at first glance, I am making progress cleaning out the study. I finally managed to shred the giant pile of old files, and have gotten much of the accumulated junk up off the floor. There's a long way to go, to be sure, but I think I may actually get there by this evening, provided Agnes doesn't find anything else for me to do.
What's on the agenda for the new year? I gave up on making New Years' Resolutions a long time ago, since I seldom manage to keep them and it only leads to depression in the long run. Nevertheless, I do want to try to write more real, mailable, hard-copy letters to my grandchildren this year. I want to get them used to the idea of writing and receiving letters, letter-writing being a nearly-lost art in an age of text messaging, e-mails, and phone calls. I think I may be able to do this one, as long as I can enforce some time management discipline on myself. We'll see.
And so, on this cold and gloomy New Year's Day, Agnes and I wish all of you the very best and hope that the new year brings you health and happiness. I'll be recovering from my burst of relative holiday good cheer and getting back to ranting about various things, but will try to keep my perspective - it's tough to keep an optimistic outlook in an election year, but I'll do my best.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
2 comments:
Lately, I've been thinking about the few pen pals that I had when I was 8 or 9. I'm not sure if kids still do that but its a great way to get children to write letters.
Receiving letters from a Grandad like you must be the next best thing in today's electronic world. You have a good idea there and I'm going to let my parents know about it for when Aaron is older.
A New Year does give us the chance to start afresh, although before long, it seems just like the old year.
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