Each year my friend hosts a lovely party at her home on New Years Eve. This year was no exception. The crowd of attendees trickles in around 8pm and typically disperses just after midnight.
The party follows her traditional schedule and a featured part of the evening is awarding the trophy to the Best Graham Cracker House.
These houses are constructed earlier on a Saturday morning in December. On that day, the bagel-fueled participants plan and create houses based on meaningful events from the previous year.
All of the houses are built with graham crackers, instead of gingerbread, due to the ease of construction. In addition, an inordinate amount of candy is purchased, consumed and sometimes added onto the structures for embellishment and decoration.
Each construction foreman chooses a recent event to depict. The themes reflect the Olympics or the election, or perhaps a more personal story, such as a vacation, concert or wedding from the previous year. The important characters, like the current Pope, a bride and the groom, or even the president are often depicted by gummy bears.
All of these entries are later numbered and a speech or a song accompanies the presentation of each one during the party. Speeches may be texted in from other states. After the official voting the winners may even be face-timed about their victory, if not in attendance.
But aside from the contest, the New Year’s Eve is fairly typical, party attendees refill their cups and plates, while discussing their holidays, pets and grandchildren. The large-screen TV shows crowds gathered around the globe, while the various hosts introduce a variety of musical acts.
But we are not really familiar with the majority of the “Rocking” musical guests on ABC. A chorus of “Who IS that?” cries out, since no one is ever listening to the television host’s introduction. Then a heated discussion breaks out over the wardrobe (or lack of clothing) worn by the hip, young singers on the screen.
However, many of the guests are truly music lovers. The party crowd understands the concept of “too long” hair, crazy outfits and shocking their parents, even if they are unfamiliar with the recent Top 40.
The night continues, the music plays, the the ball drops, glasses clink, hugs and kisses are shared, and then everyone heads home.
The next day, when other friends inquired about my New Years, I tried to amuse them with a repeated chorus of, “Who IS that?”, from the party the night before. I explained how many of the partygoers didn’t know any of the musical acts and we were all showing our age. After all, I listen to 80’s music myself most of the time.
Later on, but still on the first day of January, a smaller group of us were invited back to my friend’s home again for a dinner of leftovers. We enjoyed sandwiches and the goodies that had remained uneaten from the night before.
While we were relaxing , recapping the party and joking, while listening to the 60’s music playing on the TV, and we sang along with many of the oldies. Until an unfamiliar tune came on, and I said “Who IS that?”.
Happy New Year!