Since New Year’s Eve was on a Saturday night this year, there was no chance of upholding Chris’ tradition of getting up early on New Year’s Day and going to the zoo. Which turned out to be a good thing for me. I didn’t have to feel guilty about sleeping in and not joining him! 🙂 Although we did have to still get up for church, at least they moved the start back by an hour. This gave me carte blanche to let the kids stay up to ring the new year in properly, although they were still grumpy the next day.
Our celebratory dinner consisted of lots of snacky foods. That is what I remember my mom doing for New Year’s, and it always seems so special to have so many fun choices. There was a veggie tray with dip, lots of potato chips, bread sticks, a bowl of cut up fruit, crackers and two different cheese balls, and lots of beverages. I just left it all out on the table, so they could snack whenever they wanted. Chris stayed up and watched a movie with us, and I think he even played a game with us before going to bed.
At midnight I set off the “Tischbombe” I had brought at the grocery store. It’s a cardboard rocket with a wick sticking out of one end. You light the wick, and after a couple seconds, the top blows off the rocket and shoots out fun party supplies. Only I had never lit one myself before, and so I was expecting the wick to catch fire in such a way that you could actually see it was lit. Apparently it doesn’t do that. So I picked it up to relight it, whereupon it exploded against my chest, thereby losing a lot of the cool effect. Fortunately, it didn’t hurt a bit, just surprised me! The toys inside were just what we needed to wrap up our celebrations.
There ere party hats, little horns, whistles and funny masks and moustaches. (I set it off in the kitchen, since it specifically said not to light it on a burnable surface, like our wood floors or wooden table…)
We watched the fireworks on the Austrian channel and danced around to the fun, traditional music in all our finery.
The kids were very disappointed in my sparkling-cider-opening-skills. I was so paranoid that the cork was going to shoot out and break something, or that half the cider would spill out onto the floor, that I opened the top very, very slowly. So slowly, that the cork didn’t pop out at all, and I had to pry it out with my hands. No loud bang, no liquid shooting out, nothing. But it did taste delicious. 
Thankfully, I had bought several bottles. so there was some left for Chris to open properly in the morning. 🙂
We continued to party until almost 1, watching the fireworks out our window and blowing our horns along with all our neighbors. By then they were all more than ready for bed. 
What? he says.
At the start of a new year, I am filled with gratitude for the wonderful year that has passed and all the great things and people we got to see and experience in it. Here’s to another year just as wonderful!