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We had Trinity, as we usually do on New Year’s Eve. My ex-husband and his wife usually try to go out and do something grown-up for the night. He and I used to try and do something on New Year’s but it usually went wrong. I’m not sure why, but it was like on the old Mary Taylor Moore show, where she could never successfully throw a party, no matter how hard she tried? Well, New Year’s was like that for my first husband and I. Add to that dubious history the fact that I don’t really drink, and I’m not a big fan of crowds, well, traditional American New Year is just not my cup of tea. We threw a party for a couple of years where we invited friends over with children so we could all get out and see grownups and still celebrate. Most of my friends don’t drink either, so it was fine. Then my friends with children our daughter’s age got a child with a dog allergy, or a parent with a dog allergy, and we have four dogs. Oh, well. So Jon, Trin, and I had a celebration that was very us.
There was a marathon of Naruto on Cartoon Network. Jon and Trin liked the show before I did. But I’ve been won over. So a night of Naruto that none of us had seen. We’ve managed to get all the DVD’s available in the U.S., but we had not been watching on television. We made up for that on New Year’s Eve. We ordered Crispani Pizzas from St. Louis Bread Company, so no one had to cook, and we watched anime until after midnight. Trin stayed up for it all. She was also very tired the next morning. Funny how that works.
This morning we did a tradition that comes from the years when birding was a more serious hobby for me. The first bird you spot on New Year’s Day is going to be the theme for you that year. Some birders travel to exotic locations so they can wake up and have a chance of having an unusual bird for the year. Jon and I both saw Cardinals. We saw them separately in different parts of the yard. Trin saw a Starling. I combine my birding background with my Wiccan faith and we look up the bird in the Ted Andrews books on working with animal totems. Though, as always, we are encouraged to think about what the bird we’ve seen means to us. Any special memories associated with it, or what the bird was doing at the time we saw it, etc . . . My Cardinal was feeding at the bird feeders. I don’t know what Jon’s was doing. He just walked by, and said his bird was , “Mucking about in the back hedgerow.” So another year is officially here. I have put up all the new calendars, and that’s quite a lot. I really like calendars for some reason. I used to feel stupid that I bought more calendars than anyone I knew, but since I actually put most of them up, or dissect them for art, and having them just makes me happy, I don’t fight it anymore. So I put up, officially today, six of them, and that’s just in my office. Like I said, I really like calendars.