New Year's Traditions

I am going to be spending my first New Year's Eve in Iceland this year. Icelanders like to tell me how great it is, and actually I am sure it will be really nice, a lot like Menningarnot I am guessing, with people downtown late and then going for fireworks. Should be fun.

But I think nothing will beat, ever my entire life, the New Year's Eve party we had in 1991. New Year's Eve is also my dad's birthday, so my mom had always organized a party that night for their friends. But in 1991, it was my dad's 50th birthday, so she decided to do something special, and she included lots of extra people, including a lot of our friends, and it was so cool, all of us siblings hanging out with mom and dad and all of our closest friends. I'd started college and felt like one of the crowd, totally, we were all in a festive mood. Just before midnight, a magician my mom worked with at the elderly care center showed up. He did magic tricks for us (some of them not very good but all of them very funny) until just before the countdown to midnight. It was a perfect night, a perfect New Years.

For the last decade or so the main thing to do actually has been to go to Las Vegas. My dad used to really like to face a new year of life, another year on the planet, by riding the rides on the Stratosphere. I have to admit I have not joined him in this ritual, and won't be this year either. I am not quite that much of a thrill seeker.

Although of course carousing in downtown Reykjavik has its own dangers.

Comments

Ko-Leen said…
did you know I have a baby sitter for new years?
i am about to explode in excitement!
December 17, 2009 at 2:09 PM
William said…
AHHHH..to be 50 again! Thanks Liz..If I did it this New Years I'd probably need an oxygen bottle and an extra supply of Depends!
December 17, 2009 at 4:46 PM
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