Today is Sunday, January 1 and there are only 358 days until Christmas.  It’s never too early to start planning.  Happy New Year!  I hope the new year is a good one for all of us.  Today we remember the birthdays of Caspar Cruciger, Elizabeth Griscom Ross and Don Novello.  On this day in 0001 it was the origin of the Christian Era, in 1673 regular mail delivery began between New York and Boston and in 1956 Elvis Presley recorded “Heartbreak Hotel” for RCA in Nashville.  In Camaroon and Western Samoa it is Independence Day, in Taiwan it is Foundation of the Republic Day, worldwide it is New Years Day and in the US it is National Hangover Day and National Bloody Mary Day.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  I did our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and since no one got sick, I guess it was a success.  Everyone said it was great, but you can never be sure if they meant it or were just being polite.  When I got home from church, I took one look at the kitchen and turned off the light.  I decided not to worry about it.  I knew it would get cleaned up, I just wasn’t sure when.

Christmas morning I had breakfast with the kids and watched my grandsons open their gifts.  I was impressed by the fact that they took time to see who each gift was from, look at it and then move on.  When I was a kid, I knew that some gifts were from my parents and some were from Santa, so I really didn’t worry about reading the tags.  If it was clothing, I tossed it aside and moved on to the next package.  I knew there were toys in there somewhere.

On Monday, Boxing Day, I chose to stay home.  I knew stores were already having their after Christmas sales and the stores would be filled with people returning the gifts they “loved” the day before, but changed their minds about later on.  There are people who actually start their shopping for the following year on that day.  I would never do that.  First of all, I might not want to buy a present for some people by the time the next Christmas arrives.  There is also the problem with sizes.  People gain or lose weight and something that will fit them on December 26 might not fit them by the following December 25.  The final problem is that I will probably forget where I put the presents and who I bought them for by next year.

As always, during the week leading up to the new year, we have endured the various reviews of the past year.  The newspaper had a list of The Year In Gossip, The Biggest Celeb Stories of 2016.  I will be honest, I did not read that article.  I had a difficult time caring as the various events were happening, so I certainly did not want to revisit such important things as Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris breaking up or the troubles Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne were having.  Why do we feel the need to rehash everything as the year draws to a close?  Can’t once be enough?  At least, so far, we have not been subjected to the Best Commercials of 2016 show.
It amazes me that someone thinks that we should watch a show filled with commercials.  If I want to spend the evening going to the bathroom and getting snacks I can do that without having the TV on.  I don’t need a show about past commercials to do it with.

I was talking with my dear Barbara, recently, and I was discussing why I don’t want to be in Times Square for New Year’s Eve.  One of the reasons is that you would need to be there early in the day to get close enough to see what was going on.  With security the way it is, once you are in, you stay in.  This makes it difficult if you need to use the bathroom.  Forget getting something to eat or drink.  I am sure there will be vendors, but I am not sure I want a second mortgage on my house just so I can have a pretzel and a bottle of water.  Weather also plays a factor.  I always felt that I would rather be with family or friends, inside and warm, watching the ball drop, then to be outside with a huge group of people I don’t know, freezing my tookus off, watching the same thing.  More importantly, once it is done, it is a lot simpler to get home from a friend’s house than from NYC at that time of night.

New Year’s Eve is a time to get together and have fun with friends, eat, drink and be merry.  It is not a night to go out and pretend that you are having the time of your life in a room full of strangers, drinking $10 watered down cocktails and eating reheated snacks.  It is not a night to make the annual resolutions that everyone makes, either.  You know, the ones where you swear that you are going to lose weight this coming year, made while you eat a plate of cake and cannoli.  I have always felt that you should make resolutions that you can keep.  My resolution this year is to not get involved in Donald Trump’s advisory circle

I only have one other issue and then I will leave you alone for a week.  Why did they move the Tournament of Roses parade to Monday, the 2nd?  I have always enjoyed that parade and looked forward to watching it on New Year’s Day.  Now they have decided to hold it a day later.  It is not a problem for me to watch it, I am retired and have nothing else to do.  It is just that for all these years it has been on the first and now it is not.  For anyone who knows me, they will realize how disconcerting this is for me.  But, life goes on.  I will deal with it.

This week our fact tells us that Little Miss Muffet was a girl from the 16th century whose name was really Patience.  One can only assume that they changed her name because Little Mis Patience sat on a … ?

I hope the new year is filled with happiness, love and joy for all of you.  Thank you for reading and I hope you will continue to join me weekly.