I have a lot of thoughts about what I want to write in this post, but I should probably start by telling you that I'm writing it on January 1, 2024, a full year before I have it set to go live. I am wondering what 2024 will bring and thinking it's cool that when I proofread these words, I'll know what became of the year. At the same time, I'm reflecting on the now completed 2023. It didn't start out so great--we had a health crisis in the family that meant I couldn't go to Poland and Slovakia as planned in March--but it ended with some great highs--I got to take that trip in November (Thanks, KRM, for making attempt number three for my benefit!) and a family voyage to San Diego in December. The class for whom I'm the dean had a better year in 2023 than they did in 2022. I accomplished most of my 23 in '23 list of goals. So sitting here on 1 January 2024, I'm feeling okay.
I'm also looking back ever further than the year that ended last night. I'm thinking about my #hotchkiss365 project. As I'm writing, I've completed nine years of my daily posts. What I thought of as a one-year New Year's resolution to take photos of what delighted me on campus will celebrate its tenth anniversary the day this post goes up. You can see my first post above, liked by twenty people. I post a new photo of the lake every January first, so I'll be heading out when I get back to campus from Maine to see what Wononskopomuc looks like in 2025. If you check out my personal Instagram account or the new account I created (@hotchkissschool365), you can find this year's lake views.
But none of these reflections or predictions connect to my real idea for today's post. In fact, I am thinking about New Year's Eve parties. For years, my husband and I hosted a NYE party. At first, we invited people to come any time after 8:00pm, and most guests usually stayed until an hour or so into the new year. Our guests and we let our young children stay up in the TV room watching movies and eating snack food. After people left, we would put the girls to bed and clean up our house.
At some point, we decided that we didn't really like staying up until well after midnight, so we moved the party up. For a few years after that decision, we hosted a potluck dinner to close out each year. If people wanted to go to another, later party, they had our blessing, but our party ended around 9:00 pm. After everyone else left, we completed our clean-up and stayed awake to usher in the new year. A couple of times, my husband got to perform as part of Phish's midnight surprise at Madison Square Garden, so I hosted the dinner party on my own.
Then the pandemic happened. We didn't host anything. Nobody did, and during that time, I figured out that the new year comes whether I'm awake to greet it or not. Yesterday (remember, I'm writing this on the first day of 2024), we had two friends over for a lovely brunch at 10:00 am. (Hi AD and JH!) Last night, the two of us texted a Happy New Year wish to our daughters (who were both in California), watched a movie, and went to bed well before midnight. The day was lovely.
As I've gotten older, I've learned to embrace more of what is going to happen whether I'm paying attention to its passing or not. If I'm going to wake up too early, which I almost always do, I might as well go to bed as early as I can, right? If I like having people over, I might as well invite them for times of day that make me happy. If they don't want to come, they don't have to, but it's also possible that others appreciate the earlier schedule.
At this moment, I don't know if I'll be in Connecticut or Maine on the day this post appears online (The answer is Maine!), but I'm thinking it might be fun to host a New Year's Eve brunch on that day. (Oops, that didn't happen.) That way, I can celebrate the end of 2024 with people AND still get to bed at my preferred early hour. Plus, if others want to go out to wild and crazy bashes, they can, but if they'd prefer (like me) not to be out and about on such a big party night, they can do that, too.
What's your preferred time of day for a New Year's celebration? I'm also always interested in resolutions. Did you make any in 2024? Did you keep them? How? Do you have a new one starting today? How will you keep it? Please share any responses in the comments. And also, I hope you have a wonderful 2025!!
This year, we had expected to go to sleep at our usual early hour and skip the celebrating. In the early afternoon, I thought there were probably many friends/neighbors with the same non-plans. We called those living closest and asked if they would like to come for an early celebration. Nearly all of them did. We had a merry 2-hour celebration shortly after the sun went down and still went to bed early. I hope we will be able to the same next year.
I particularly love the last-minute nature of this party. Deciding without a lot of time to plan takes the pressure off. We saw friends from 3:00-6:00pm this year, which was a similar early and low-maintenance plan. Happy 2025!