Went out with our friends. Ate dinner- then back to their place for coffee and dessert#1` before the movie. Got to the theater-- and it was closed. So went to another nearby theater and saw “Fences” (excellent) which ended at 11:57! Went back to their placve for champagne (sparking spanish wine actually) and dessert#2. Watched the next time zone’s New Year celebration. It just so happens that both our kids were visiting friends in that time zone (they are usually 3 hrs away) so we got to group text at 1 am our time. Didnt get home til late. Haven’t been up that late in a long time.
I hate New Year’s Eve. Most of the time.
We used to spend the evening with a group of our closest friends, during which we exchanged our Christmas presents, had great food, and we generally made a house party of it, so no driving. Alas, we are now scattered to South Africa, Cambodia, and by death and divorce.
Now it’s mostly depressing. This year we celebrated getting our power back after 2 days in the dark and cold.
Thank you all for the well wishes. Here’s hoping that everything is uphill from here on out 
Ya, Romani. Good health to u and the others here who have been suffering.
I think you can definitely stand on that being a 2016 blood draw, romani. No question.
Like Consolation, our power was out for a couple of days. We had a nice evening with our friends, then came back and tried to keep our eyes open long enough to watch the ball drop on TV. We stumbled upstairs to bed. As we were drifting off, DH’s cell phone rang. Our daughter had slid off Route 9, not far from our house. She and the car were OK, but she was stuck. So we sighed and got dressed again. Just as we were leaving the house, she called to say a nice young couple had stopped and pushed her back on the road. We waited for her to get home and verified everything was OK. So it ended well, but we were wide awake by this point!
@MaineLonghorn, got to love those people who live where you are! Helpful and nice. Getting your D unstuck.
Here I swear half the people have tow straps in their trucks.
@MaineLonghorn, wow, so glad she was ok!!!
Went to another couples house with a nice mix of very low key people, made it to 1 am!
Do any of you all do more special stuff for New Year’s Day?
Today DH smoked the best pork tenderloin I’ve ever had. I made fresh black eyed peas (have to eat them on NYD for good luck). MIL joined us and made some incredible corn bread. The three of us ate and watched football in our casual clothes, sipped on some wine, and just had a very relaxed day. Probably the best holiday we spent the whole season.
@Nrdsb4 we kind of did that. My son headed back to school this evening, but before he left we just hung around cooking and eating small things all day.
The morning started out great for me, because I went to the boardwalk, and took a leisurely walk along the ocean. It was a dazzling morning, and it seemed that everyone in town had the same idea. Fun to watch the surfers riding the first waves of 2017.
We take pups to the golf course every NYD as they can be off leash after season is over. We walk the course and the scamper along. It was beautiful sunny day and in the 40’s - mild for January in upstate NY.
And what an experience it was. We had a nice dinner, took the subway to a stop directly under the office building, passed through a group of partiers, phoned the security guard, and were quickly and easily inside. Next thing we knew we were on the 27th floor with views of Times Square and the Empire State Building.
It was surreal. For two hours we were like many other small groups on New Years Eve, munching on snacks and playing board games, with an occasional interruption to look down at the crowd below or to watch the fireworks that went off every 15 minutes. We had a perfect view of the ball dropping but couldn’t hear a thing and we were completely oblivious to the Mariah Carey lipsync episode.
It was almost like watching it on television but we were there. Really strange but truly my best New Years ever!
Our NYE was spent cooking and cleaning, for our traditional Japanese-American spread on NYD… we are supposed to prepare enough food to last for 3 days. We had about 50 over, on a very pleasant Southern California day. I am exhausted and just finished cleaning again…