New Year's Eve

We made it to midnight this year, and for Maddie there was never really any question.  Nana was off to sleep about 11:30 or so, but the rest of us stayed up for the final countdown.

You can see we had our paper crowns on, the ones you get inside of Christmas crackers, along with other prizes.  Just before midnight, we pulled apart the crackers, and each one of us actually won with the sound of the loud snap.  We found these crackers not long ago and were happy to keep up the tradition.

Mom had the place settings all made up, along with a nice centerpiece to celebrate the night.  The weather was warm and the fireworks in the neighborhood were going off all through the night.  It wasn't as much the sound of a war zone as the Fourth of July, but there were plenty of explosions heard all around, particularly just after midnight, of course.

We were happy to see the return of a live countdown and fireworks show down at the Magic Kingdom, and that's what we tuned in to see once more this year as we counted down the final seconds of 2021.  We don't have to worry about new bands being promoted or politics or crazy things going on at Times Square - it's just Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald counting down with everyone else at the Magic Kingdom, along with a whole lot of fireworks.  There weren't even any hosts this year online, although that may return next year.  We were just grateful to have something live to follow this year, and of course Maddie will actually physically be there at the Magic Kingdom later on in 2022, so that'll be fun.

On this laptop, we also had another New Year's Eve celebration pulled up - we watched the "Possum Drop" from Tallapoosa, Georgia.  They have a stuffed possum that they put into a ball with lights on it, something similar to what you'd see at Times Square.  Then they slowly drop it off the corner of a building there at the town square as the final seconds tick down.  

His name is Spencer the Possum, and he's not real.  At least not anymore.  But yeah, they just made a frame structure that the put Christmas lights around, and then stuck a taxidermied possum inside it.  And as ridiculous as that sounds, we love it.  They canceled the Peach Drop again this year, so there was nothing to see there in Atlanta.  So why not check out small town life, and visit with the good people of Tallapoosa.   From time to time, we were watching their celebration through the night, listening to a local band play "Free Bird," amongst other things.

Of course, we weren't primarily watching that tonight - it was more about the actual possum drop itself.  Our real programming tonight, the thing that got us to midnight, was our "Spider-thon."  Tonight we watched "The Amazing Spider-man" and "The Amazing Spider-man 2," along with a break for snacks in between.  Mom had prepared an amazing cheese tray with crackers, and some delicious sweets too.  In between the movies, we took a break to snack on those, and as midnight approached, we even had one of those bottles of sparkling apple cider to enjoy, along with some tall plastic wine glasses.  We're so fancy!

Can you believe that none of us had ever seen "The Amazing Spider-man 2" before?  It was actually a better movie than I'd heard.  There were things that weren't great about it, but there were plenty of good things in it too.  It made us wish there was a conclusion to the Andrew Garfield trilogy, actually.  I know there are some moments within "No Way Home" where these movies get addressed.  But it would be pretty awesome if we had some closure there.

Anyway, we had a pretty good night.  At one point, I put on a vinyl record of Guy Lombardo that we have, "New Year's Eve" with Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians.  I remember my dad's dad really liking this music on New Year's Eve.  Mom, Nana and I were singing along with some of these tunes, in fact.  And of course, there's Auld Lang Syne there with everyone calling out, "Happy New Year!"  This record is from 1963 - we were playing it while cleaning up the piano room somewhat.  Almost there - I have a feeling the Christmas decorations will be down a lot quicker this year.  Except the living room tree, I suspect.

It was a good day too.  We started the DeSantafication Process, getting down the tree in the piano room, along with a few Nativity sets as well, including our Nativity Empire.  Maddie and I were doing a lot of board games throughout the day - we did the old "Monorail" board game, and did the Charlie Brown boardgames too, which is somewhat like Chutes and Ladders, but with additional cards and characters.  Some time ago, I had printed out a Phineas & Ferb board game, and I'm not 100% sure where I got that from.  But I had it inside the Monorail game box for protection, and sure enough, we put that board game down and played that one too!

It was a nice day today.  The Orange Bowl was tonight, and the Bulldogs defeated their opponent again, just like they've done in all but one game this year.  In fact, it was another huge beatdown, which leads to a rematch on January 10th between Alabama and Georgia again.  I think the general feeling here is "We'll see how it goes..."

Our Atlanta Braves won this year, and we can certainly sit back and savor that one.  Overall, the year 2021 had its moments.  Not as many, we'll just say it that way.  But I'm still here, and so is our family.  Eventually, we'll be able to escape this quarantine that we've been stuck in for two years.  Maybe sometime in 2022.  But until then we'll be grateful for what we have, and for me, that's summed up in this one picture here:

Yes, even including the annoying screaming rubber chicken.