Bonne annee!

Happy New Year! My year is going about 50/50 so far. We had a WONDERFUL New Year’s Day open house yesterday, with tons of friends, tons of food, tons of drink, and tons of windows open because it was an ungodly 50 degrees outside. I decided yesterday that my favorite thing about our huge party every year (besides seeing everyone, eating all the food, et cetera) is starting the year with an overwhelming sense of abundance.

Let me set the scene for you. You pull into my street on New Year’s Day and you know there’s a party going on, in large part because you have to scramble a little bit to find a parking place! You walk into my house and probably haven’t gotten your coat off before someone offers you a shrimp or a brie-stuffed puff pastry. You walk into the dining room and are greeted by ham, salmon, crudites, cheeses, meatballs, cookies and cake pops. The end of the kitchen island is groaning with wine, soda, juice for the kids, and plenty of liquor. The house is just full of people, some you know and some you’ve never met. Everyone plays the “so how do you know Jane or Missy” game, since the invitees are family friends, business associates, and people from church, Girl Scouts or the adoptive parents group. You have a fabulous time and leave the party full of good cheer and a sense that this WILL be a happy new year.

Of course, if you’re me, you spend a couple days shopping, cooking, cleaning and prepping for the party. Then you stand for 5-6 hours talking to all the people you know and love. You eat entirely too much food, because they keep coming by with those little brie-stuffed puff pastries and you want to check that your meatballs taste as good as they smell. You chase your child around the house, reminding her to share and play nice (although she’s honestly a better hostess to the under-10 crowd than you would have been at her age). You catch people up on your life and hear about theirs and then spot about 10 more people you should really say “hi” to. You have a fabulous time and sit down after the party full of good cheer and a sense that this WILL be a happy new year.

Of course, thanks to tall the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and standing around talking to great people, as I crawled into bed late last night, every joint in my body started talking to me, and they weren’t whispering sweet nothings into my ear. I woke up every time I turned over, got up to pee, or breathed too hard. By this morning, things were taking a turn for the urgent care, with a sore throat and stuffy nose, which combined with my arthritis meds (which are working SO WELL, OBVIOUSLY!) mean I can get a sinus/strep/ebola infections pretty quickly. I have a standing order for antibiotics, I just need a doctor’s go-ahead to start taking them. And since every one of my doctors has today off, it’s off to the urgent care I go.

How’s your new year starting?