But this is a unique holiday.
First of all, which day is the holiday--New Year's Eve or New Year's Day? After all, you have the party on the Eve, but you have it in anticipation of the Day. But after you've gone to bed, what exactly goes on on the Day? That's the legal holiday, but you don't do too much celebrating.
So in this post, unlike all the others, I've decided to do two days, the Eve and the Day. Which means there will be two years per memory.
Also, I've always loved holidays, but I didn't really consider the New Year a holiday until I was about 10--which makes my childhood memories rather scant.
2010-2011. On New Year's Eve morning, we got up early in Nashville to board our plane. It was about 6:00 a.m. (I think) but it was already 60 degrees. At the security scanner the woman asked me what was in my pocket. I told her it was a planner. She made me hold it above my head. I had a window seat on the plane. I mostly slept, intermittently reading Moby Dick and looking down at the snow-covered mountains below. My mom talked to the lady sitting next to her, who apparently was on her way to Nevada or California and had family troubles. We arrived in Salt Lake where it was snowy. It seems like we had to wait forever to get off because of ice troubles or something like that. We went outside to meet my dad who was picking us up. My mom waited at one end of the pick-up area while I went to find him. I was wearing my striped hoodie, and I discovered that a piece to Preston's magic set was in my pocket--I had picked it up off the ground in Nashville to take it inside, but forgot I had it. I found my dad in the Rav, and I got in and we went to pick up my mom. He was listening to the country station, which surprised me because I didn't know he liked modern country music. When we got home I remarked that it wouldn't be good for me to go running because it was icy. There were chocolate mint cookies on the counter, which our home teacher had given us before Christmas. That night we went shopping at Smith's Marketplace. We looked briefly at their clearance Christmas stuff, and I picked out a gold garland with stars that I could use for New Year's. I got some Gatorade and some ginger ale because my throat was a little sore. I wanted to get a CD, so I looked for Coldplay or Owl City. I didn't see any Owl City, so that made my choice easier. I got the Viva la Vida album with a bonus EP. On our way home I asked my parents if they wanted to hear the song I bought the album for. I remember having "Viva la Vida" play while we were waiting to turn left out of the parking lot. I wondered what my parents thought of the music. I had only heard that one song; the next song on the CD was "Violet Hill" which was a little more rough, and then it was "Strawberry Swing," which was mellow. For dinner we ate quesadillas made on my new quesadilla maker, using eggs and turkey as some of the ingredients. Then my mom and I went to Temple Square to hear Cherie Call, our favorite local singer. I brought her album Beneath These Stars to listen to on our way. We parked at a free empty parking lot and then walked up to the tabernacle. First we heard the end of a Polynesian group called My Sisters. There were some kids who sang a Jackson 5 song and I thought the kid sounded just like M.J. My mom and I stood at the back until they were done, and then we went and sat down. Next up was a Japanese drum group. The man conducting (who my mom said was in our stake) said that anyone walking outside would probably come inside because they would be able to hear it from outside. The group wore Japanese clothes and some of them wore T-shirts underneath but some did not. The spokesman for the group seemed gay. One of the drummers got so intense that he accidentally let go of his drumstick and then just kept playing as normal, with one stick. I looked at my mom and laughed. Then at a slower spot the guy grabbed his stick, and she looked at me and laughed. She told me later that she didn't know why I was laughing until she saw him go grab his stick--then she figured out what had happened. When we were done, we sat closer to the front for Cherie Call. We saw her standing on the edge of the stage. She was performing with Sam Payne. The man conducting introduced them as folk singers, and asked them if that was right, and they seemed undecided about how to classify their music. Sam Payne sang a song about a church dance and one about his ancestor, the namesake for Gardner Village, who escaped an angry town in Canada. Cherie Call sang four songs. Her first was "Invincible." She said she wrote it for her little girls, who were probably watching the ball drop back east. (Later I remarked to my mom that I wondered why her girls were back east, but she said she probably meant they were here in Utah, watching the ball drop back east on TV.) She sang "One Good Woman," and before she started, I could tell what song it was because of the intro. She told the backstory of why she wrote it, about how she heard she had an ancestor who came on the Mayflower so she visited her aunts, who gave her an amazing lunch and insisted on telling her the stories of all her ancestors. During this song Sam Payne accompanied her on a tube-thing instrument. She sang "Photographs," which she wrote about her aged grandma. When she told her grandma's old age everyone applauded. The last song she sang was "Believe." Then she said they were going to sing a song appropriate for the new year, and I hoped she would play her New Year song, but it was just some ordinary Sam Payne song. When they were done, the man conducting said, "It wouldn't be New Year's Eve without Cherie Call and, Sam." It was obvious he forgot Sam Payne's name, but in a minute he announced them again and got his name. We left and my mom said she thought we should make that a tradition. I remarked about the bad thing about it being in the tabernacle was that it meant they couldn't sell albums, and she said she thought the same thing. We walked back to our car. The song "He" came on and I pointed out the lyrics, "I am in The Sound of Music, and he is there to be my fan. I am a nun like fifteen others, but he knows which one I am," and said that applied to my cousin April who was a nun in The Sound of Music. When the song "Delivery" came on, I told my mom it was my least favorite Cherie Call song. We were rounding the corner from Lacey Way to Raygene Way while we had a conversation on the song. My mom said she didn't like the tune, but she liked the words, and that there would be people who would love that song. We would have watched Happy New Year, Charlie Brown. Then we watched TV. There was a little snippet about that year's ridiculous fashion of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and someone else, including Lady Gaga's meat dress. Some interviewer asked Katy Perry if she ever considered wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and she emphatically said no. A lot of the people talked about 2010 being a bad year, but I didn't think it was that bad. After midnight, [Jesse texted me, "Happy passage of time,"] my parents went to bed, and I shoveled snow.
On the morning of New Year's Day, we had a few things to do before going to dinner at Golden Corral with my mom's family. I brought my new Taylor Swift CD along in the car, since I hadn't really had a chance to listen to it yet. I needed a haircut, so we drove by Great Clips, but they were closed. I needed new shoes, so we went to Famous Footwear, and they were open. I got red Vans and some brown Levi's shoes, which were very cheap because they were on sale, they were half off being the second pair, and my mom had a coupon. I can't remember if my mom bought waterproofing stuff or if she was just offered some. I put on my Vans in the car before we got to Golden Corral. When we got there, my CD was playing "Mary's Song" and I wondered why it was called that. My sister commented on my new shoes. My grandma said my aunt wouldn't like them, since they were red. It was either this year or the year before that someone at the restaurant knew my grandma. We sat down at our table, and I was dismayed we weren't in our own room like usual. I don't know if my aunt commented on my red shoes, but she did comment on my small orange watch. I sat next to Cameron and talked to him to fulfill my New Year's resolution to start one conversation a day. My cousin Joey talked about what he had done the night before, and his mom asked him it was fun, since he didn't have alcohol, and he said no, but he was clearly lying just to defend alcohol. Later in dinner I talked about my brother's great idea that drunk drivers must have a green light on their car and drive no more than 25 miles per hour, and if they disobey those laws, they would be executed. Cameron and Joey ridiculed this idea (of course they would), Cameron talking about driving 25 mph on the freeway. He said, "I know it wasn't your idea." My cousin Renee had brought a new boyfriend. When we took a big family picture, he offered to take it, and my mom thanked him. After lunch we got gas at the gas station near Winegar's grocery store. It was around there that my mom explained that Renee's boyfriend was one she had met online, but while he was off getting food at the restaurant, Renee said she was planning on breaking up with him because he belittled her. I remarked that I was always a little skeptical of meeting people online, but I knew my high school friend Latecia (formerly) Pope had met her husband online. My mom told me that my sister met Matt online, and I was surprised that I had never known that. At some point my mom said she chose the particular Taylor Swift CD she did because it looked like there weren't many love songs--but after hearing it she realized that was not the case. (Oh, Taylor, there's more to life than love...) Then I put waterproofing stuff on my new Vans in the sunroom, and I wasn't excited to be in there because it smelled bad because our cat's litter box is in there. I wore these shoes at 4:00 when I drove our green car to my landlord's house in Eaglewood to get my apartment key and that of my roommate/former companion. When he answered the door he asked if I was Derek but I explained I was Mark--I was surprised he didn't know because I had emailed him that it was me who would pick up the keys. I wiped my shoes on the mat as if he would invite me in while he got the key, since it was cold, but he didn't. He told me about how one of my roommates, Zach Zimmerman, lived just up the road from him, and that he liked not charging a lot for the apartment. On my way back home from his house My 99.5 was playing the top songs of 2010. They played "Heartbreak Warfare" by John Mayer, and then a song with John Mayer and Taylor Swift. Then I was in my room packing and listening to my computer's playlist. I was glad when it played Cherie Call's New Year song, "Starting Again, Again."
2009-2010. If I am not mistaken, it was New Year's Eve when I went to Kohl's with my family. I got a clearance sweater and two pairs of Sunday pants. I got a clearance Peanuts Christmas shirt for about $3. Allie got some Hi-top shoes and somehow got the idea that they would make her run fast. In the store she asked me if I wanted to see her run fast, and I didn't like the idea of her running in the store. After Kohl's (or maybe it was before) we went to Arby's. I think I got a mint shake, but I might have only thought about it. Then we went home, and Matt came. Allie told him about her shoes that made her run fast, and then ran down the hall. He said, "Oh, I just saw a pink streak!" since she was wearing a pink shirt. Later she was about to run and said that everyone would just see a pink streak. My mom and her mom kept telling her that shoes alone wouldn't make her fast, that she needed to practice. Later that night we watched Happy New Year, Charlie Brown while Matt was in the other side of the family room. I ate a bunch of leftover Christmas candy while we watched a Disney nature documentary. Part of this documentary showed birds falling (purposely) out of a nest, and the narrator said they were "falling, with style." I remarked that I didn't like that blatant Disney reference in an otherwise mature documentary.
The next day we watched Rudolph's Shiny New Year in the morning and Allie had to leave the room at a tense scene with Eon the Terrible. She didn't say why she left, but I'm sure it was because it was too scary for her. Then we left to go to Golden Corral and I brought my new Cherie Call CD, Beneath These Stars, to listen to on the way. Allie looked at the case and kept asking about songs, but I can't remember exactly what for. We sat in a party room at the restaurant. My aunt brought her friend, "Other" Suzanne, who brought her seeing-eye dog, which sat under the table. Other Suzanne talked about having been to Washington but it was part of Washington where I'd never been. The guide dog was wagging its tail and my cousin April didn't realize it was a dog at first and wondered why my mom was kicking her. At some point Jesse said, "Remember when Susanne [meaning my sister] was cool?" and April said, "Susanne, remember when Jesse [she might also have included Peter] didn't say the same jokes over and over?" My grandma said she wanted to see the "Circus Olé" in Las Vegas. I'd never heard of it but my mom realized she meant the "Cirque du Soleil." I'm not sure when the topic was introduced that day, but my cousins wanted to get rid of the piano we had given them years before. I wanted to get it back. My dad was reluctant, but agreed to. As we were going he said something about them just getting rid of it anyway, so I knew he knew it was better for us to get it. We cleared stuff off of it in Quin's room, and Quin said, "Hey, don't I get a say in this?" I thought it was ridiculous he wanted to keep the piano just so he could put stuff on it. They backed Joey's truck up to the porch, and we moved the piano down the hall and outside onto the truck. We had it so that it was leaning. My aunt saw that and was worried about it (as I was), but there really wasn't a better way to have it, especially since it was going to get out of tune anyway. I rode with Jesse and Peter in Joey's truck. They didn't like Joey's music so they looked for something else to listen to. I think they came across an oldies station that was playing the Beach Boys. I said I didn't really like the Beach Boys, and they seemed mildly shocked. They backed the truck into our driveway. Then we had to figure out how to get the piano out of the bed of the truck. My dad asked my mom if she could also help us. He also said he didn't want anyone underneath the piano. Allie was watching, and I didn't want her in the way, so I told her to stand in the garage, and she said, "But it's dark in there!" We carried it up the stairs. I felt bad because my dad was huffing as he was carrying it, when he didn't really want the piano back, and I was too weak to really be contributing a lot--we knew it was primarily my dad's muscles that got it up the stairs. Peter was hurting because his finger got pinched in the piano. We briefly stopped on the stairs so he could move his hand. He said, "That hurt like a mother," and I almost said something about not knowing what a mother hurt like, but I didn't. Finally we got it up the stairs and I went and moved stuff in the living room for when it was wheeled in. Then I pulled out the old Sing with Me book (the predecessor to the Children's Songbook) and played New Year songs. I remarked about it being sad that now that we had a piano, I was going down to school.
2008-2009. New Year's Eve Elder Wilson and I went to Airway Heights to get those elders and we did a little tracting in their neighborhood. I told Elder Colton I didn't want to go to the house that said "No soliciting" but we did anyway. Then we went up to Cheney for our district meeting. We (as a district) stopped at the bowling alley to get pizza, and I paid for two pizzas since I had a huge amount of money on my card. I got a Hawaiian and some other kind. Then we went to the institute building to eat them before our meeting. Elder LaPratt and Elder Maurer had paid for their own pizza. Elder LaPratt remarked about pineapple on pizza being gross, but he was the only one there who was of that opinion. I blew a noisy balloon my mom had sent me. Elder LaPratt said he wished I had been transferred instead of Elder Love. (Little did I know that this diabolical fiend was to become my companion four months later.) After eating we had our meeting. Elder Wilson gave a training using some book he had. I gave one about using the Book of Mormon. I started it off my having volunteers to read the last verses of each of the gospels. Elder LaPratt volunteered to do John. Matthew and Mark talked about missionary work and Luke talked about temples. John talked about how the world couldn't contain the books that would be written if everything Jesus did were written down. I talked about how the Book of Mormon was a book that was indeed written about what He did and then continued my training, but I don't remember what else I said. After the meeting everyone played games there at the institute and I talked to Sister Van Noy and I think I played some on the piano. Then we went back to the Airway Heights elders' house to spend the night. Elder Powers went to bed, I went to bed on the floor but set my alarm to get up before midnight, and Elder Wilson and Elder Colton stayed up doing who knows what. I woke up before the New Year and after it came I did five sets of ten pushups, and then went back to bed.
The next day we were allowed to watch a Disney movie. We watched Monsters Inc. I was mad because at the end it started skipping, so I didn't get to see the ending. I didn't remember how it ended, but I remembered everything else I had already seen since my niece used to watch it all the time. Then the man the elders lived with let them watch Over the Hedge. I had no interest in watching this because we'd already watched one, we were supposed to watch Disney movies, and Over the Hedge is simply a dumb movie. Then we went to do our shopping but Walmart was closed (because their roof caved in, we later learned). So we went to Cheney to the bowling alley and it was only us four there--no one else from the district came. Elder Wilson filmed himself doing some bowling. Then we drove down to Ritzville. We did our shopping at the Harvest Foods store, which was expensive. One can of chicken was like four dollars, so I decided I'd wait on that until Walmart opened again. Elder Wilson insisted on getting some Martinelli's for New Year's. At our apartment I turned on the holiday lights and we did our planning and drank Martinelli's. And then we went to bed.
2007-2008. Elder Chun and I tried to contact a less-active in the Greenbluff Ward who lived on a street called Sycamore, but they weren't home. Then we went to meet the sisters to go to our district meeting. First our district stopped at Taco Bell for dinner. They of course asked what name to call. I probably gave the name of Mark; I know Elder Wakefield used Zak. Sister McNaughton gave the name of Sister Jen. Then we watched the zone leaders illegally drive the wrong direction so that they could make it past the island in the middle of the road. We went to the Francis church building for district meeting. We practiced teaching. We pretended to teach our investigator Debbie, played by Sister McNaughton; her boyfriend, played by Elder Yarbrough; along with Sister Cunningham, played by Sister Shaw. We taught Lesson 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We asked about faith, and Elder Yarbrough, pretending to be the boyfriend, quoted Hebrews 11:1. I know I taught the principle of baptism. Then after we all practiced people critiqued. People said I did a very good job (since I was a greenie) and Elder Clyde said that our baptism teaching was a little weak but made it clear he meant no offense to me. Then Elder Chun and I and the sisters left. There were flares on the road. We sang "Sweet Hour of Prayer" in parts and said we could sing it in church. We went home, where our members, the Welshes, were visiting with some other ward members, the Sokolowskis. I suggested setting our alarms to get up before midnight. But Elder Chun decided just to stay up, but he didn't tell me, so I kept waiting to say companion prayer. I went to bed, and then got up before midnight. I played "Ring Out Wild Bells" on my Hymns CD after midnight, and I might have remarked how the song was nice and depressing. Brother Welsh was outside lighting fireworks.
The next day, after playing dodgeball (since it was P-day) we came home and the sisters invited us to come to their house for crêpes. Elder Chun and I raced to see who could shower faster. I called Elder Gammon and invited them to have crêpes with us and the sisters. He made fun of me for pronouncing it the French way instead of the widespread anglicized pronunciation "crapes." On our way the sisters called and asked us if we could buy some Nutella, and I said yes, but I asked where I would find it. They were impressed I knew what Nutella was (Elder Chun didn't), and told me it would be with the peanut butter. We stopped at Yoke's and Elder Chun bought some Ice Breakers Sours, along with the Nutella. We ate crêpes with the sisters and then we practiced "Sweet Hour of Prayer" with Sister McNaughton playing the organ their member had. Then we went to Walmart for our ordinary shopping, and then to the Marxes', the members other missionaries lived with, to watch a movie (since we were allowed to). When we got to their house Elder Chun put some snow in a plastic bag and put it in the trunk to keep his coconut popsicles cold. I told him that my mom had bought those in November 2004 when she was sick, and he didn't seem to care. We debated what movies to watch. Some wanted to watch a Work and the Glory movie. Some wanted to watch The Incredibles, which I strongly opposed, since it was rated PG and we were supposed to watch G-rated movies. We ended up watching The Emperor's New Groove, which I liked since I'd seen the beginning several times but never the end. Elder Yarbrough said that we probably all had old ladies in our ward just like Izma. Then we went and had dinner with the Pughs. They had a barbecue and lemon cookies. Then we played a game with them. It was a Mormon-themed game, I think it was like Mad Gabs, and there were responses like "plural marriage" and "Aramaic." I was surprised the Pughs didn't know what Aramaic was when even Elder Chun knew what it was. Then we went home for our weekly planning.
2006-2007. My parents and I went to sacrament meeting on New Year's Eve with the plans of immediately leaving to go to Fillmore--we were heathens in skipping the rest of the meetings. Allie didn't come with us because she opted to spend time with her mom's boyfriend at the time, Darrin. I was disappointed when I looked at the program and we were singing no New Year songs. But our sacrament meeting was the one where everyone gets up and says their favorite hymn. Toward the beginning of the meeting I got up and said, "I was disappointed to come to church on New Year's Eve and see that we weren't singing any day-appropriate hymns. I would like to sing number 215, 'Ring Out, Wild Bells.'" As I left the podium Brother Weight, a member of the bishopric, said "Thank you" to me, and I thought it was because he was glad for the hymn I chose, but now I doubt that was the reason. I second guessed myself because the first verse (the one we sang) of that song isn't very spiritual. I was a little annoyed when one girl--a Drinkall?--wanted to sing "Joy to the World," because Christmas was over and that's the most boring Christmas song in the hymnbook. After sacrament meeting I changed into a red polo with blue stripes and a red tie. Then we went to Fillmore. We put a bunch of goodies on the counter in my late grandparents' kitchen, such as Chex Mix, truffles from our home teacher, and those soft peppermint lozenge things. There was a Church-wide youth fireside that night, and my aunt Sarena was taking my cousins. But I wasn't very dressy and I was convinced everyone hated me, so I didn't assert myself into going. I said I didn't want to impose. But then afterward I felt dumb for not going, so I went into a side room and turned on the delayed broadcast on KBYU, but I felt dumb doing that so I turned it off. My aunt brought the movie Step Up (is that what it's called?) and her family and my dad were in the living room watching it. But it was almost midnight! My mom and some of us turned on the TV in the kitchen to watch New Year's coverage. The New Year came, but they kept watching their movie, and when it was over, Sarena said it was time for them to go home. I was appalled at such apathy to the New Year! After everyone else went to bed, I turned on my VHS copy of Happy New Year, Charlie Brown really quiet and turned the closed captioning on because some of my little cousins were also sleeping in there.
The next day we drove back in our Suburban. I remember being depressed it was 2007 because of the changes that would happen to me that year--graduating from high school and going on a mission! For part of the drive we listened to the Beatles LOVE album I got for Christmas. I thought my mom was singing along to "Strawberry Fields" but I'm not sure if she actually was. Then we went to Golden Corral with my mom's family, and then to a hardware store. That night I watched Rudolph's Shiny New Year and then I remember sitting in our family room, with a string of blue lights draped around the room, talking with my family. I told my family about the unintentionally funny scene from the TV version of The Miracle on 34th Street when Kris Kringle rather violently beats the show's antagonist--a somewhat shocking departure from the movie. We all laughed about it.
2005-2006. On New Year's Eve I wanted to have music continuously playing in my room. I did this because I had a strange manner of listening to music and doing so would rotate my CDs. But the only one I remember playing was the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory soundtrack. Dave, Ya-ping, and I went to the house of my aunt's blind friends, John and "Other" Suzanne, before going to see The Nerd at Hale Center Theater. I was sitting in the car with David and Ya-ping and Ya-ping didn't like David's suggestion that she not speak Chinese so she could improve her English. We went inside John and Suzanne's house. David had to tell Suzanne I was there, and told her I was the "strong, silent type." Then when we were leaving John asked, "Everyone out?" but no one responded so he closed the door on some of us. I felt bad for not speaking up. I remember hearing my aunt describe what was happening for her friends. After the play David talked to the title character because he had been the TA for his acting class. As we left my aunt was saying Jesse would like the story (which had a significant plot twist) because he liked "twisted" stuff like Tim Burton and Danny Elfman, but then she realized Danny Elfman was just music. David said, "He probably would."
New Year's Day was a Sunday, and the Thompsons came over. I watched Rudolph's Shiny New Year. My sister said sardonically, "Why are we watching this?" Quin enjoyed identifying all the fairy tale characters from the Island of 1023, but he didn't know who Rumpelstiltskin was. That surprised all of us, and his mom said she'd have to tell him the story. After the show I remember something about the candy cane Lifesavers in a dish upstairs.
2004-2005. I remember playing the last level of Warioland II. My mom asked me to pick a movie I would watch, and told me it couldn't be one of my sitcom things. She told me this rather firmly. But I don't think I ended up picking anything. Instead, we watched the 100 Most Memorable TV Moments on TV Land. Before every commercial break they showed little snippets from the program and one they kept showing was Linus saying, "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." After everyone went to bed I stayed up and watched the end. They picked September 11, 2001, as the most memorable moment, with man walking on the moon as a second. But after they did their 9/11 segment they had a segment called "A Final Thought" in which a man disagreed with 9/11 being the most memorable moment, because he said 9/11 was part of a war, and wars have gone on forever, but that 500 years later we remember Christopher Columbus opening a new frontier, and walking on the moon was a new frontier.
The next day we went to Golden Corral. My mom told the Gildersleeves how boring we were on New Year's, that we just watched TV. She emphasized that we didn't even watch movies, just TV. Uncle Rick said, "We at least watched movies."
2003-2004. Allie was wearing a purple outfit when I put a hat with padding and a little glittery sash saying "2004" on her. We took pictures, but I don't know where they are.
The next day after our family lunch, Dave, Ya-ping, and I went to the Eaglewood Golf Course to go sledding. It was very windy, so Ya-ping was able to sit on a sled on flat ground, hold another sled up in the air, and have the wind push her. Then when we went home I think she was listening to the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack on the computer.
2002-2003. On New Year's Eve David had some friends, including Preston and Marie, over to watch Citizen Kane. Marie yelled at one scene transition involving a bird. David was raving about the cinematography in a scene where a fireplace was enormous. We put chips and dip, I think guacamole, in my "Happy New Year" platter.
The next day I remember being downstairs looking at the candy David's friends had left. It was a bag with lots of chocolates, including Milky Way Midnights, which I'd never heard of before. We went to Golden Corral for the first time, and I remember having Vanillamynt Myntz in the car. My brother described Golden Corral as like Chuck-a-Rama but better.
2001-2002. April and her then-boyfriend Brandon and some other friends came to our house for New Year's Eve. After midnight we went outside and lit fireworks. It was snowing and April's male friends waved excitedly to the poor snow plow guy who had to work New Year's Eve. [I think this was the year we had bought some candies called Snoopy Treats--little chocolates with Snoopy on the wrappers.]
The next day we went to a Chinese restaurant for our family dinner. I sat by Jesse and Wayne. Wayne asked me if I'd seen Lord of the Rings. I told him I thought it was boring. He said he loved it but couldn't remember anything--all he could remember was Frudo. Jesse corrected him, Frodo, and Wayne said that proved just how little he remembered.
2000-2001. New Year's Eve was a Sunday. I was at church when I got horrible ear pain. I remember being in priesthood in the upstairs classroom and I sat on the floor because I was in so much pain. After church we went to Instacare and I had an ear infection. After there we went to Walgreen's and my mom went in and bought my medicine. She also bought several clearance boxes of chocolates with Snoopy ornaments. I commented on her buying stuff on Sunday but she said she wasn't making them work any more because she had to buy the medicine anyway. My grandparents and cousins' family came over to our house. Joey brought an M&M dispenser he got for Christmas. I remember debating if I should use a noisemaker from the previous year since it said "2000" on it. I remember sitting on my banana chair outside my room, playing my National Geographic card game with my cousins. When midnight came I tried to pop a balloon with confetti in it with my bare hands but it wasn't working well. I had hung some of these balloons on a garland hanging above a couch in the family room and my grandpa took his pen and popped them, since he was sitting under them. I had put a bunch of confetti on a giant pretend nickel and I was going to have my cousin Peter drop the confetti on us over the railing. But when Sue and Wayne saw this, they forbade Peter, saying it would break the nickel. So they took it from him and put it on the railing. I thought it was more likely to break from being accidentally knocked off from there. (I wonder if they thought he was going to drop the nickel and not just the confetti.)
1999-2000. David watched 2001: A Space Odyssey with his friends before he went and hung out with them. [I was with my parents at Top Hat Video to get movies. I rented The Phantom Tollbooth. My mom said she wanted to rent a Christmas movie, so I suggested Rudolph's Shiny New Year, which I had heard of but never seen. My mom was rather firm in her opposition to this, and ended up renting some cheesy TV movie. I found a VHS that had Rankin/Bass specials, including The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold, but I didn't rent it.]
The next day he reported ringing in the New Year at his friend's house, and another family in the neighborhood came outside banging pots and pans. That night I remember he had some friends come over, one of whom was Lyle Toronto, who had walked me home when I was in kindergarten when I was "lost." I was for some reason on my hands and knees in the dining room when he said hi to me--I think it had something to do with putting Christmas decorations away, because I remember our bamboo nativity.
1998-1999. All five of us Melvilles went down to Fillmore on New Year's Eve. Somewhere along the way we stopped and ate at Taco Time, and then we went and saw A Bug's Life. At the end of the movie they had their fake blooper real, which we all found hilarious. My mom guffawed heartily at a flatulence gag, which surprised me because our family is above that kind of thing. Then in the car we talked about the movie, and there was the conversation that it was a good movie. They said it wasn't like, "It was good, but..." and David said, "except, 'Turn yours off,'" referring to a line in the movie. The radio was on and there was a Smith's commercial with a party horn blowing and the narrator guy said he was practicing. In Fillmore I found a tiny dry leaf just inside my grandparents' door. I decided to save it because it was so small. I think my family watched Armageddon but I didn't.
The next day we came back to Salt Lake. I wanted to make sure my tiny leaf didn't get ruined. We met my mom's family at a fancy restaurant that still had decorations of pine trees on cottony snow. Jesse said this restaurant was "buffet--all you can eat!" and Peter echoed him. They had lots of different kinds of eggs and I didn't know what poached eggs were. Then I rode with Thompsons back to my grandparents' house. Quin asked what day it was, and I, eager about the New Year, said, "It's January 1, 1999," but Sue and Wayne both forcefully said he was asking about the day of the week (it was Friday). I knew that; I was just excited it was a new year. At that point in time my cousin Todd and his wife Deanna liked to have me sing, so I sang my New Year parody of "Holly Jolly Christmas," with lyrics like "Have a happy snappy New Year" and "I don't know if there'll be confetti, but have a cup of champagne." When I was done they cheered and Deanna said she especially liked the part about champagne. Jesse was pleased with his own (inferior) New Year song that went, "We wish you a Happy New Year, we wish you a Happy New Year, we wish you a Happy New Year, and a Merry Christmas." Then Thompsons left and Nan and Dave and I waited at my grandparents' for our parents to come and I played some imaginary game involving my Veggie Friend Seedies in their living room. I don't know why we were at my grandparents'.
1996-1997, 1997-1998. I remember there was one year my mom had made homemade pizza, one of which was on a pan with little holes in it. I ate too much pizza and got acid reflux. I didn't like the burning feeling so I kept drinking water to try to ease the discomfort. I ended up throwing up that night due to all the pizza and water. But I don't remember what year that happened. I also remember a year in which I saw the new year flash on the screen in front of Jay Leno or David Letterman, but I can't remember the year.
1995-1996. I'm thinking this was the year that on New Year's Eve my parents had rented a movie that I really don't know why they thought it was appropriate with a seven-year-old in the house. It was about this creepy woman who liked to swim in a tub in her house wearing nothing but some thing draped in front of her--which means, if I remember correctly, this show had rear-view nudity. This creepy lady was able to make people immortal, and one of her clients fell down some stairs and ended up having their neck twisted but they still survived.
On New Year's Day, I remember being in the family room with my new tepee, the Christmas decorations I got for Christmas, and my cousins. We had crackers called Sociables and I thought it was a weird name for a cracker but my sister explained what "sociable" meant.
Other posts in this series:
The Ghost of Independence Days Past
A Pillowcase Full of Trick-or-treat Memories
Remember Every Detail, Volume 3: Thanksgiving
Yuletide by the Fireside, and Joyful Memories There
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