New Year's Eve 1978 Photo credit: The New York Times
Happy New Year everyone! For all those who, like me, have always wondered what the actual lyrics to Auld Lang Syne were here you go:
Auld Lang Syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne!
For auld lang syne my dear, for auld lang syne.
We’ll take a cup o’kindness yet, for auld lang syne.
Read the full poem by Robert Burns here.
So there are only three days left of 2009. I don’t know about you all but 2009 has been a hard year, and I’m not particularly sad to see it go. Except for the whole there goes another year and you’re another year older thing, 09 can get outta here.
What will you be lifting as you toast the New Year ? I’m hoping to be sipping on one of these lovely cocktails, both from Cooking Light Magazine, December 2009:
Sparkling Pomegranate Cocktail
Serves 6
1 1/2 cups Pomegranate juice
1/4 cup grenadine
1 bottle Prosecco chilled
6 slices lime
Combine pomegranate juice and grenadine. Divide juice mixture evenly between six glasses or champagne flutes. Top with Prosecco. Garnish with lime slices.
Rosemary Lemon Drop
Serves 6
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cups water
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary, sprigs for garnish
1 cup vodka
juice from 5 lemons
crushed ice
Bring first three ingredients to a boil in saucepan, remove from heat, let stand 20 minutes. Strain, cover and chill. Combine chilled syrup, vodka and juice. Pour over ice in a martini shaker, shake to combine. Pour into 6 glasses, garnish with rosemary sprigs.
These two make perfect New Year’s Eve cocktails, both because they are sure to be delicious and because their ingredients carry a special meaning. Rosemary is the symbol of friendship and remembrance, and the pomegranate is often used to symbolize fertility and eternal life.
Husband and I went a little rogue this Christmas. We stayed home, just us and the dog, and through a series of circumstance and decision had a no gifts, movie, and chinese food kind of day. And we loved it!
Having a no gifts Christmas Day is not just for Scrooges! It is also for people in their 20′s who have to zig-zag the US during the holidays and basically forget to buy gifts for one another. Instead of stressing at the last minute and watching the mailbox like a hawk we decided to just forget gifts until after Christmas. Bonus: buying gifts after the day means sales, sales, and more sales.
Not going to midnight mass is not about forgetting religion. It is about not driving in the snow in the middle of the night, and then standing for an hour in the back of a fully packed church since everyone who never comes (yourself included) has decided to come to church thus putting the place officially over fire code capacity. Bonus: watching mass on tv means you get to catch the Pope getting tackled on Christmas Eve right there in your living room. And instead of just thinking “did I just see what I think I saw?!?”, you can rewind that bad boy and find out.
Not cooking and ordering Chinese food for Christmas dinner is the best decision ever! No clean up, no replay of Thanksgiving dinner, no day spent in the kitchen. Bonus: you spend that day going to the movies, and unapologetically lazing around your house in your pajamas. Which is what you always wish you could do on days off, yes?
Happy New Year cards are not just for atheists. They are for couples who finally decide to stop sending out holiday cards because it takes forever, and no one ever sends one back. This of course means that everyone and their mom will send you a card this year. Never fear, New Year’s card to the rescue! Bonus: you only have to send one to the people who were sweet enough to send you a card, and no one’s feelings get hurt. No time this year, but next year I’ll be prepared with a stylish set of cards like these from Feterie. Gorgeous!
Or perhaps these by Kate Spade! Available at Crane’s.
A good friend is a connection to life- a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. ~ Lois Wyse
Today is a very Sweet Girl’s Birthday. My best friend. My sister from another mother.
The kind of girl who can make you laugh until you cry, and will let you cry until you laugh again.
We have known each other forever and a day. Through unfortunate perms and unfortunate boys. Through the happiest and hardest days of our lives.
I hope this day is one of the happiest. I hope all your dreams for the next year come true. I hope you laugh until your stomach hurts, love until your heart explodes, and never, ever run out of chocolate.
Some sparkly moments from Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia, PA.
Hope everyone is surrounded by twinkle lights, friends, family and joy this season!
Happy Chrisma-Hanu-Kwanza-ka to all of you!
