New Year's Eve, 2022

[Daisy]

Do you celebrate, and see in the New Year, or watch it on tv with a glass of something or other, or ignore the event and go to bed at your usual time?


I'll start us off.

We've always celebrated one way or another. Before we had children we were always working with the band - and in the days before New Year's Day was a bank holiday, we'd probably not go to bed - home from the gig and off to the day job! The very thought makes me feel exhausted now!

For almost 40 years since we moved to this village we have always celebrated with friends. The largest crowd was 27 for a sit-down meal! Everyone helped and contributed and it was a lot of fun. It also meant all our children could join in and loved feeling grown up enough to see in the New Year.

We now spend the evening with 5 friends and take it in turns to be the host. The host does the main course and someone does a starter and others do two puds. I'm on starter duties this year and am doing smoked salmon with prawns with a horseradish-based sauce, served with a light salad with a tangy lime dressing. The recipe looks super-simple! We'll meet up about 7.30 for drinks, enjoy our meal and see in the New Year. It's close enough to walk home, which is a bonus.

[Lizzie48]

Daisy, that sounds like a good idea for New Years Eve, I usually stay home, I have been invited to the young friends of mine, he is with the police and works alternate years, now is their turn to party, they both come from large families, have friends etc so it is an open house. M was telling me (we) will be doing karaoke , I think he meant they will be doing that! It isn't far for me to walk so I think I will go, DS2 is invited but they haven't decided yet. There are always a lot of fireworks here, I did read that none are allowed in some towns this year, Rotterdam being one of them, the organised display on the riverside will go ahead.

[Oma]

We never usually do anything ,
When we were young we went from friends to friends, the children all joined in , then we started to not bother , the Grandchildren arrived and we were the babysitters , both boys would stay over and New Years day I would do a buffet tea for everyone ,
Now my children don’t go out so it’s just us , sometimes we stay up sometimes we don’t depending how we feel .

[Gemini]

I love New Year's Eve. For me it is the friends equivalent of Boxing Day. A lovely excuse for a happy gathering

Oma if we didn't do anything we wouldn't make a point of staying up either. It's just another night really.

I hope you enjoy your evening Lizzie. Let us know how the karaoke goes!

Daisy, your night sounds lovely and so does your starter. Close to home is a major bonus too.

We have hosted a New Years Eve gathering for many years. Possibly as long as we have lived in this house which would make this the 13th year. Unlucky in a way then as one of our best friends has Covid so can't come

She has worked front line NHS throughout the pandemic and has avoided it so far. She retired in September and only works 2 days a week now. Bad luck and she is gutted. For 2 years before we started our gatherings we spent NYE with her and her OH, so she will be missed . To make it worse she was at her parents farm when she tested positive. They are vulnerable so she is isolating in her own room and bathroom!
I have had a cold this week but tested negative so fingers crossed the same tomorrow or there will be no party at ours!

Our numbers are generally between 9 and 13. This year there will be 11.

I make mulled wine and we have nibbles and other drinks both alcoholic and non, available.

We order takeaways from 3 local places, so it's a no cooking night We have asked for the orders ahead this year and will place them today .
We play board games and our musical friend has sometimes brought some bells for us to try to play tunes, with hilarious results.

I love it being at ours. Lovely mulled wine smell throughout the house, no travelling and clearing up doesn't take long the next morning.

[Gemini]

Bit of a last minute decision today but we are doing Who Is the Baby quiz tomorrow night. I have asked anyone who can to email me a baby or child photo, both if possible , or if that's not possible but they can bring one tomorrow to do so. I have had several sent to me today, and tomorrow I will print off those I have onto sheets and can slip the loose photos in with them
The baby and child photo of one of our friends gave me a very good laugh
Our friend who can't come sent her pics so I am hoping we may be able to include here via Zoom. If not I will send her them all via WhatsApp so she can have a go.

[Daisy]

Gem, it is a lovely thing to do on NY Eve. I agree, it's Boxing Day for friends. What a pity one of your friends will be absent this year. We always held it at our house in our previous house because we had an enormous "anything" room off the kitchen. But now we alternate between three of the four houses - all within walking distance of each other.

EDIT: I was typing when you posted. Baby and child photos are great fun. It was one of the things we did at the staff Christmas party at college - hilarious!

[Gemini]

Daisy the baby and child photos really was fun. Because I knew who everyone was I really couldn't see how they all got so many so wrong!
We plan to do it again next year, but with more categories! Baby, Toddler, Older child/teenager and young adult.

H brought the whistles and song sheets so that was funny too. Boards games are tricky with 11 but we had a few rounds of Scattagories.
Many noisy games of table football took place in the conservatory!

The takeaways were more or less on time, my mulled wine a great success, a lovely night all in all.

We greatly missed our friend G. She went to bed before midnight. All her family have Covid now 🙁
We will be arranging a smaller get together to include her when she's well.
She is one of the biggest fans of the mulled wine, so Jamie Oliver will be called on again

[Daisy]

Gem, I'm glad you New Year's Eve went well, despite people being poorly. Were you tired this morning? I bet you didn't have any mulled wine left over to toast the first day of the New Year this morning!!

We had a good evening, too. We took Eva to the paddock for a good run, in the pouring rain, and got sort of trapped there for about half an hour while the Young Farmers' annual tractor rally rolled slowly past. We've never seen, or heard of this before, but I never realised there are so many tractors in the area!! We were soaked right through by the time we got home! I made the starter for the NY Eve's dinner and plated it up ready to take round to our friends. Although it's only a few hundred yards we drove round, very slowly and carefully so as not to spill the food. We had a lovely evening, a fantastic meal, with lots of laughter over the 'conversation starter' cards in the crackers. We saw the New Year in and were watching Jools Holland when our neighbour texted to say there were fireworks near by, so we came home. But Eva seems to have slept through them - we left the tv on loud, plus Classic FM on high volume both upstairs and downstairs, so we hope she didn't hear them. The friend who lives further away stayed with us overnight, and then later this morning our hosts from last night called round and we had a coffee and a chat.

The rest of the day we seem to have been on the phone! DS1 phoned to say that DIL1 has been up all night with a Noro-type bug, so we're not going over there tomorrow.

Our neighbours' son went down with Covid while he was staying with them, and his 6-month old DD has caught it too. So just to be on the safe side, we're not having our planned get together tonight.

[Gemini]

Oh dear Daisy, so many poorly people at the moment!

A pity about tonight's get together but last night's sounds lovely, plus free tractor rally!

No left over mulled wine The recipe takes 2 bottles but I will make it with 3 next year!

[Nanto2girls]

Daisy/Gem, glad you had a good evening yesterday.
Shame about the poorlies.