Happy New Year

We had a low key but very enjoyable New Years Eve last night.  We stayed at home and hosted several couples for a late dinner and then dancing.  My sister and her husband came up and they're always a lot of fun, even if they had to leave early.  What I liked most about the evening is that we were all about the same age and the conversations were easy, the benefits of shared life experience.  I've never been a big fan of New Years Eve, probably too big a come down after the high, for me, of Christmas.  My wife on the other hand, is a New Years Eve fanatic.  She is a product of her culture which reveres late night partying, something I always felt was a huge point in her favor.  A couple of weeks ago she said we were not going to do anything on New Years Eve.  I told her that I didn't believe her and that she would change her mind.  Shortly before Christmas she revealed that she wanted the low key evening at home with these friends.  She threw herself into making the dinner, something else I really admire about her.  Once she decides she wants to do something she commits on a fundamental level that's impressive to watch, if somewhat scary if you get in the way, which I have an almost innate ability to do.  It's what I bring to the fight.  She baked a huge pork shoulder as well as many of the traditional New Year's Eve dishes of her homeland.  She had me searching the internet for the correct recipes and baking times and temperatures.  Google gets a big assist on the dinner.  She was nervous about it the whole day but it turned out fabulous.  Around 11:30pm she connected via video skype with her mother's home in Panama where her family was gathering for a party.  It was kind of neat sharing the party over such a long distance.  They had on shorts and t-shirts and all the doors were wide open.  We were a little more warmly dressed and all of our doors were closed since it was in the 30's outside.  As midnight approached we had on the Times Square scene for the countdown.  We were going to share it at the two locations but apparently midnight comes two minutes earlier in Panama so we missed out on that.  Both of our kids called and that completed the night for me.  It was a great way to usher in the new year.  This morning was a little difficult but we rangered our way through it and woke my daughter at the ungodly hour of 11am to get some more i-phone advice.  I'm guessing she was not extremely pleased by this but as always she was a trooper.  Buddy the Wonder Pooch spent most of last evening in his cage as his party skills have not progressed to the point he realizes jumping on female guests and stealing food is acceptable.  I'm not saying it never worked for me but, I digress.  He did make several appearances as the folks in Panama demanded his presence.  Today he triumphed when we presented him with the huge pork shoulder bone with generous hunks of meat still hanging off it.  He took it out onto the deck and spent three hours reducing it to shards.  So Buddy's year is off to a good start, just like my wife and I.