New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve at our house is as quiet as Christmas Eve. It has been years since Hubbie and I attended a New Year's Eve party, and we're glad, because we don't enjoy them. Invariably, at public parties, we found the music too loud, the attendees too raucus, and the champagne served up at midnight too nearly resembling the taste of shoe polish (or what I imagine shoe polish to taste like). Private parties were somewhat better, though we yearned for home way ahead of the midnight hour.

So, at home, Hubbie, Mother, and I entertain ourselves with a game, snacks, and watching "Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve" on TV. Our preferred game for New Year's Eve is Michigan Rummy, which we have modified a bit to suit ourselves. For instance, we use regulation size poker chips, instead of those tiny ones that came with the game. Each person is assigned 100 chips at the start of the game. And of course we use jumbo cards, with easy-to-see large numbers and suit symbols.

We play until someone wins one of the big pots, so full that overflowing chips are consigned to a cereal bowl...those pots are usually the king and queen of hearts, and the 7-8-9 of any suit. This time, Hubbie and Mother kept the king and queen of hearts cleared out, but the 7-8-9 pot grew and grew. I got the king and queen of hearts only once, when the pot held a measly four chips.

In fact, I barely stayed in the game, having almost depleted my chips stash early on. Near the end of the game, I didn't even have enough chips to add to all the pots, but Hubbie and Mother took pity on me and let me play anyway.

Michigan Rummy is a game that Mother usually wins, and this time was no exception. Just as the midnight hour approached, after playing since around 7 p.m., she laid out a 7-8-9 of one of the suits and took that pot of chips, which hadn't been won since Hubbie won it about an hour into the game.

Up to that point, we wondered if we would have to just quit the game and declare Hubbie the winner, since he'd garnered more chips than Mother. I, with no chips left, was the clear loser, of course.

Game ended, we watched the ball come down in Times Square, and toasted the New Year with glasses of Golden Spumante...may it be a peaceful one for all of us.