Five Question Friday

1. How long does your Christmas tree stay up?
Usually until mid-January, although one time it was still up on my birthday! (Which is the 27th.) I have to be 'in the mood' to take it down, you know? The sheer volume of Christmassey stuff I have to take down and get all packed away neatly and properly in the 3 giant bins, it really requires a good solid full day. So if I don't have the time or energy to devote to that project, UN-decking the halls, as it were, it just doesn't get done.

2. Do you have plans for New Year's Eve?
Our plans for tonight are as follows: eat, drink, be merry, watch movies, play the many board games we got for Christmas, laugh, stay up late, let the kids drink their 'wine' (sparkling juice or Baby Duck), and do the countdown, then hit the sack in drunken splendor.

3. Do you have any New Year's resolutions?
Many, many. To be discussed in a later post.

4. How did you spend New Year's Eve when you were younger?
Mom and Dad would always have a bottle of Baby Duck for us young'uns. Depending on the ferocity of the weather, we'd usually have a roaring bonfire out by Muckletoose, roasting wienies and marshmallows. The video camera would be rolling to catch all our hijinks and antics. Lots of bellylaughs and stories told. If it was just too cold outside, we'd cuddle up on the couch in the livingroom, the wood-burning stove going full-blast until we were sweating and in our undies (in the case of Dad and the boys, Mom and I would put on our summer shorts and tees); watching movies, tv, home videos. Snacky foods and nibbles. And of course, by the time the countdown rolled around, we'd all be hyper and giddy and screaming, "10...9...8...7...!" Us kids, the boys in particular, would pretend to be drunk off our 'wine'. There would usually be a contest between us kids who could stay up the latest and most years Trapper would win, because poor little Levi would just zonk out after the countdown and there was no way I could keep up with wiry, hyper little Trapper. I think there were a few times Mom and Dad had friends over for a little NYE party, in which case all those listed activities were carried out to the nth degree, only with more adults and kids adding to the merriment and loudness. I'm pretty sure on those occasions, with drunken adults paying no attention to us kids, we would sneak some real wine (or booze) and then the fun would REALLY start. And we would devote hours to 'spying' on the adults. Haha, good times...

5. What was the best way you've ever spent New Year's Eve?
I've enjoyed all our New Years Eve's together, but two in particular were very memorable. The Y2K countdown (remember how everyone thought it would be the end of the world and the power grid would fail?) we spent in Edmonton at Christine and Joel's house. Gunnar was a little over a year old and being the perfect angel he was, he played nicely, ate his dinner, then went nicely and quietly to bed. Now, at the time Tyler didn't know he had a wheat allergy, so he'd brought a case of beer to drink, which he put on the deck to get cold and then forgot about until hours later, when the beer had frozen. He was so upset about the waste of money that he stubbornly refused to throw them out, and ended up drinking them all! Of course, we all know what happens when you drink thawed frozen beer; add to that a wheat allergy and you can guess his reaction. He got staggeringly drunk in like half an hour and ended up passed out in the hallway in front of the bedroom we were going to sleep in. Poor Christine had the flu so she was on the couch, half-dozing the whole night. So it was just me and Joel, steadily drinking and making small talk while we watched this momentous countdown on tv, waiting for the world's power grids to fail and for some spectacular catastrophe to occur, which it didn't. Then Joel tucked poor sick Chris in bed while I heaved and hauled my passed out guy from the hallway into the room. I was so mad that I just left him on the floor beside the bed, without even covers. So that was a memorable NYE.

The other NYE that brings back good memories is probably the year before that other one, because Gunnar was just wee. We lived in that apartment right downtown and we were excited because there was going to be a huge NYE festival-type thing just down the street from us, at the field by the elementary school. Julie, Randy and their boys (only 4 of them at the time) came in to town, and I believe Tari and Dave did as well, with little Scarlet and Kimmie. We all walked down to the field together, drank hot chocolate, mingled in the crowd while the kids ran around together, and then there was the countdown with the entire crowd yelling out together. And THEN, a huge fireworks display! Gunnar was fast asleep all warm and cozy in his stroller and I remember looking up into Ty's face as fireworks exploded overhead and the crowd oohed-and-aahed, and thinking "This is the best New Year's Eve ever!"