It’s one of the biggest Eves of the year. Perhaps the biggest, for some people.
Maybe you typically like to watch the big apple drop in Times Square, or go to a local fireworks celebration, or host a party. Do you have a New Year’s Eve tradition?
Because we get up early, my husband and I tend to fall asleep well before the clock strikes midnight. Even when we try to stay up, we can hardly keep our eyes open.
Yep, we’re wild and crazy like that.
Because we are perfectly happy to sleep in rather than ring in the New Year, seven years ago we started a tradition that marks the occasion in our own way. This new tradition doesn’t involve being out past dark—or even past dinner. Instead, we have our NYE dinner at lunch.
Did you know that no one goes out to lunch on New Year’s Eve? No one but us, it seems. Everyone else is home watching football, or preparing for a party, or planning a fireworks show.
But around 11:00 am, we dress up a little—not too much; it is lunch after all—and go to our favorite special occasion restaurant. We choose more expensive dishes than usual, sometimes even an appetizer, and always dessert. After all that, we don’t eat again until January.
As we sit there in the quiet restaurant, feeling festive, we talk about the old and the new. About favorite memories from the “old” year and new goals for the new one. We may dream about where we’d like to travel one day or changes we want to make to the house. We usually share some laughter and sometimes even tears, too.
So, are you looking for something new to do on the Eve? For me, this out-to-lunch tradition makes New Year’s Eve one of my favorite holidays, even though I expect to be snoozing long before it’s time to sing “Auld Lang Syne.”
Photo by Kobby Mendez on Unsplash
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