new years memories

when the winter days seem so dark and long and I start to get nastalgic, and start thinking about new years eve and can't help but think of my two favorite Aunts. Aunt Bea and Aunt Dorothy.They were both such sweet loving ladies. I loved spending time with them. It seems that the strongest memories are childhood ones or ones that have a strong emotion attached to it.
I really don't remember staying up on New Years that often as a child but the few times that we did was when we had a get together with our family. I remember Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Kenny and their family coming over one year , we played games , sang songs ,visited ect.. I don't remember the midnight hour though seeing as by 8 pm I had crashed somewhere in the house. I do remember going up to Aunt Bea and Uncle Gordon's for the holiday another year. Songs were again played on the the piano , good food and games to be played with cousins, I believe "the Gublers" were down from Oregon that year. 45 records played .(our cousin Raymond had a collection of 45's , he eventually gave them to us kids when he left on his mission .(my older brother and my younger sister and I would play those records for hours)
One year the Mutual had a new years celebration where we stayed up all night.

Probable the most memorable for me was the year our daughter was born. She wasn't due until Jan. 5, but she arrived on December 29 th instead. She was born by C-section and at that time the hospital kept you longer so a couple of nights later on new years my husband and I stayed up watching movies and saw the new year come in holding our first born child in our arms.
As parents there were only a couple times that we managed to stay up, one time Cathy's family came out (my sister in law) ...
My husband worked rotating shifts for almost 18 years or so, so most of those night I spent waiting for him to come home...which I really didn't mind ,seeing as it gave me the opportunity to watch a good old movie...one of my favorites is a Yankee doodle Dandie which is almost always played on the 4th of July and on New years.
this year we are just hoping for a little bit more relaxed year ,without some of the emotional extremes that we have felt this past year. We hope that everyone has a good new year as well.