Despite some scary moments leading up to the countdown to the beginning of Jan 1, 2025, the couple in our house managed to escape being that cartoon couple often seen before the big night.
There they sit: the old geezer in his armchair, nodding off in front of the television; the elderly wife, sprawled in her chair, telling her partner in life to quit snoring so she can fall asleep. Or she might be telling him to wake up so he doesn’t miss the dropping of the ball in Times Square, or the fireworks off the harbour in Nova Scotia as CBC crosses the country.
When I mentioned that cartoon to Housemate, he agreed that maybe, just maybe we would be that couple on the New Year’s Eve 2024.
But surprise, folks, we had so much excitement on that evening that it was impossible to miss the countdown, even though I do have cellphone evidence that he might have been doing more than resting his eyes between the periods of a disappointing hockey game.
With no specific plans for celebrating the evening, we decided to treat ourselves to a drink and doughnuts only available during the festive season. Housemate bought it, which in itself was a reason to celebrate. He even took a photo of our celebratory treats to share with friends and family.
The next exciting moment was watching a movie from the olden days, on a channel we are currently receiving free of charge. There are no commercial breaks and that interferes with trips to the kitchen for snacks and to the other room in the house often visited for certain relief of medical inducements.
Then it was time to keep track of the Warriors’ game against the Regina Pats and simultaneously watch the world junior hockey game between Canada and the United States. We were pleasantly surprised with the Warriors’ victory and applauded our guys for ending the year on a winning note. Unfortunately, the same applause was not forthcoming for the Canadian team, although it did show moments of cohesiveness and the vim and vigour normally associated with our national representatives.
Meanwhile, as the night wore on, I kept thinking about our past New Year’s Eve celebrations: dances, dinners, parties and fireworks. Certainly, those events were mostly when we were able to dance and eat without worry of disastrous side effects. But while the physical body says “no” the memory very vividly screams “Yes, remember when?”
Then we turned to the CBC which had promised a country-wide celebration through six time zones. In past years the journey has included musical entertainment from most of the provinces (usually forgetting Saskatchewan.) This year’s tour had its moments of enjoyment but was missing the song and dance. Also missing was fireworks from our province. We had to share our time with Manitoba. Curious.
And at the witching hour, we cheered to have stayed awake to greet the new year and waited to hear Auld Lang Syne. It didn’t come and so I hummed and sang a few bars just to set the tone. By 12:05 a.m. the TV was turned off, the lights extinguished and the stairs slowly climbed so we could take our medications before heading off for a short morning nap.
Later in the day, between necessary naps, we bragged to friends and family that we stayed awake until after midnight. There’s no way we were going to become that cartoon couple — at least in our minds.
Joyce Walter can be reached at [email protected]
