New Years 2010: And The Beat Goes On!

Sooooo we always end our year with a series of bangs rather then a series of whimpers. December, once it hits is pretty much a write off with scheduled trip to Chicago recurring each year along with wife's birthday, Christmas, mother in laws birthday, new Years...etc... You get the idea. Along with all of the scheduled events comes the never ending carousel of end of the year happy hours, Christmas parties at work and client parties where attendance can be "mandatory". it is hard to get anything done and when you have ADD as badly as i do, "hard" becomes "impossible".

Still what a great season. The high points for me were two annual bashes that Sandy and I host, one on Christmas Eve and one on New Years Eve. A lot of food is cooked, a lot of wine and beer are bought, some is delivered and most of it is consumed. The events appear to be about consumption. Conspicuous consumption. But we try and make ourselves believe that it is all really just about family and friends. We inherited the Christmas Eve party from my brother in law and sister in law when they left town. It is a Dierberg/Becker affair with a lot of friends thrown in who have shown up over the years. At this point the party goes back at least 15 years and i think we have been hosting for 3 or 4. I lose track. it is a great event with beef tenderloin, chick-fil-et nuggets, little smokies, sausage, cheese, salted nuts and booze. This year it ended about 12:30 and we got in bed about 1:30. Thus started the sleepless week.

One would think that party is enough. Especially with sandy working again almost full time and having an elevated stress level but nooooooo.... we need to have another blow out on New Years Eve. For the last several years our son has been on staff at Camp Arcadia, up in Arcadia Michigan. We used to go to camp there every summer before buying a house up there but with Jon being on staff we have hosted an annual New years Eve Party/Staff reunion. It is a blow out and the staff members, (all between 19 and 24 or so) start arriving on new years eve, eve and we don't lose them all until today....January 2nd. It is an open question as to how many people are here but they come from all over country, Florida, Texas, Michigan, Chicago, Ohio (Chicago is a State) and clog our street with their cars as they eat, drink, play and sleep at our house. The party itself requires that cooking start the day before and we are constantly amazed at what people of that generation can eat. We have found that if we put it out, they eat it. The only exceptions to this rule at this point appear to be a Hautley Pimento Cheese (No Offense to the Hautleys) and fruitcake. Everything else gets devoured including pork tenderloin, home made tamales, little smokies, chic-fil-et nuggets and vegetable trays and on and on.

This year the actual festivities started about 7 with a great deal of eating and then food kept getting put out. Normally our friends the Kukla's and Bentzingers sit with us around the kitchen as the kids and party kind of swirl around us. To venture into the basement where sweat, music and beer pong reign is a mistake for anyone older then 25. This year our normal old people friends were indisposed with other commitments. I was sad. But my wife, my friends and chance intervened and she surprised me with Kris and Steve Park flying in from Michigan. Over the evening we were also visited by the Koehns, the Carrons and delightfully, the Mogermans. It was a party. Along with a lot of bottles of beer and wine a full half barrel gets consumed at this little get together before the 30-40 kids sprawl somewhere to sleep.

We have been blessed over the years that no one has gotten hurt at this event but it always gives me pause. This year the party went pretty hard I am told till about 4 A.M. but I cashed out at about 3. People started to trickle out the next day but most of the people seem to stay around for a full day afterwards, just to aid their recovery. And this morning, mass exodus...mass clean up. We generally need to call in a Federal Haz/Mat Team and then get the clearance from the CDC out of Atlanta. It is a long process but normally by February our house is put back in order and the insurance claims have been paid. All in all, it is an exhausting way to end the year but an exhilarating way to start the new one.

The Diner Review will weigh in the best of 2009 over the next few days and ruminate on what 2010 will bring us. Beware. You have been warned.