Happy New Year

We await our friends and family, who come to join us on this New Year's Eve. Ours is not a big, festive party. We eat some chili, we drink coffee, tea, hot chocolate and Cokes. We turn on the TV and watch the ball drop in Times Square. At the stroke of midnight, we run outside and make some noise. We blow the horns. Our neighbors, far off across the pasture, might shoot some fireworks. We drink a toast to the New Year, of champagne or wine coolers, for the really wild and daring; of sparkling white grape juice for the tame. We play some games or watch an old movie. We catch up on what's going on in the rest of the world, what happened during the year. My nieces, one by one, will drop off to sleep. Or this year, it might be the old folks who can't stay up all night. Ours is a quiet New Year's Eve, but nice and cozy. Tomorrow, we shall eat black-eyed peas with ham hocks, and greens. It is our tradition, and portends prosperity for the New Year. Though I'm not quite sure how well it has worked in the past. Perhaps if we had stuck to collards! For turnip greens are our greens of choice. Happy New Year!