January 31st - New Year's Eve

POP!

And now we come full circle.

I started this Holiday Month project off with New Year’s Day, January 1^st, 2012.  So, logically, I end it celebrating New Year’s Eve, which takes place on December 31^st, the last day of the Gregorian calendar.  It is a time of hope and glamor and parties and bad decisions.  It is a time to flush out all of the nonsense of the previous year, and a time to get ready to kick off something new.  It’s a time to do anything that’s not depicted in that stupid Love Actually rip-off.

Since 1907, a huge component of the holiday is the dropping of the New Year’s ball in Times Square, NYC.  And since that time, Dick Clark has been there to ring in the festivities.  Through some serious foresight (and the advent of DVR), I was able to record last year’s broadcast, which I watched again to ring in the new year…again. 

I have to say that as the clock ticked down to midnight on this last night of the Holiday Month, I felt a little sad.  It’s almost like the withdrawal symptoms were already sitting in, as if I’d become addicted to celebrating a holiday every day.  I was a little nervous about what to do with tomorrow.  It’s February 1^st, after all…woot.

What would I do without another holiday meal to cook?  What would I do if I wasn’t figuring out how to decorate my office to coincide with that day’s holiday?  What would I do if I didn’t have something new to celebrate?

But I had to remind myself that the whole point of this project was to focus on the positive things that happen each and every day.  And that can mean a variety of things.  Maybe it’s when it’s sunny out (or when it’s rainy enough for puddle jumping).  Maybe it’s waking up right as The Mighty Ducks is about to come on TV.  Maybe it’s seeing an old friend that you haven’t seen in a long time, or meeting someone for the first time that will end up becoming a lifelong friend.  Maybe it’s a good cup of coffee, or an ice cold beer.  Maybe it’s the thousand little things that make up our days, things that we let pass by without even noticing.  Maybe it’s time we started taking notice.

During the course of this month, I have done a lot of things that I had never thought that I’d do (a white kid from Maine rarely celebrates Purim, let alone Ramadan or Kwanzaa).  I spent a lot of money (my bank account is limping to the finish line on this one), and most of my time during this month has been consumed by this project.  I didn’t eat really healthy, and I wasn’t the most productive person on the face of the planet (I still have that cast of Jersey Shore beat).

But I was happy this month.  I smiled more and laughed more, and I was excited about getting out of bed each morning.  I felt optimistic and happy-go-lucky, and the minutia of daily problems that would usually overwhelm me didn’t seem to be that daunting.  I had something to look forward to every day, and that’s the outlook that I will take with me as January comes to a close.  I wanted to start this year off on the right foot, and I think I’ve done just that.

So I now come to the end of The Holiday Month.  I started this project a little hungover and more than a little hopeful that I would be able to make this work.  I find myself, a month later, on January 31^st, and in that time, I’ve celebrated an entire year’s worth of holidays.  In that month I have essentially seen what lies ahead for me in 2012.  All of the holidays, all of the celebrations, all of the parties that are to come.  All of the memories that I’ve made and all of the memories that still await to be made.  All of the things that I’ve learned and all of the things that I have yet to learn.  All of the laughs I’ve had, and all of the laughs that are to come.

2012…oh what a year it’s been.  And oh what a year it will be.