Start it with a Party

Start it with a Party

Being totally frank, I love New Years Eve. Yeah sure, Christmas is awesome because of presents and Santa, but there is something uniquely special about New Years. It’s a restart, but also a time for each person to set their tone for the coming year.

For me, New Years has always meant being in the warm refuge of San Antonio, Texas counting down the seconds from thirty—the room becoming more and more excited as the seconds fall. My family’s faces stick in my mind, smiles fill their faces and their voices get louder and louder as the seconds before the New Year get lower and lower. The room is set to a consistent crescendo. Finally, when the clock reaches 12:00 a.m. the new year begins.

All at once we shout, “Happy New Year!” The shouts continue as we begin to embrace each other. My grandmother remarks on how old she feels having reached the new date. My cousin complains that we should have flying cars because its (insert updated year here.) Silly string flies through the air; while my grandpa opens a bottle of campaign, launching the cork across the room and spilling some on the floor but nobody is bothered because they have something else on their mind, fireworks.

Suddenly the party moves towards the door and rushes towards their stock of fireworks. Moments later the midnight sky is illuminated by every color imaginable. We continue to embrace each other as roman candles turn the night blues and greens.

We sing along to the stereo as our rockets explode in shades of red and purple. I laugh at my paranoid mother who carefully waves the sparkler away from her body. There’s something compelling about fireworks and everybody always joins in. Grandparents are young again while even the youngest of grandchildren is watching over them, yelling at them playfully to throw the smoke bomb before it begins its job.

The hours pass like minutes on New Years. We sport shorts and t-shirts in the warm Texas air. Usually around 4:30 a.m. the last of the fireworks have been blasted to smithereens, but no tears are shed. As we wander back into the house our goofy grins remain plastered to our faces.

To conclude the night, we talk, about anything and everything. We set goals for the New Year and ourselves. Finally, exhaustion washes over us and our beds call for us.

In my younger years, I asked my grandma why we stayed up so extremely late and did so much on New Years. She responded, “Zachary, you spend the year the way you start it, so why not start it with your family having a party?”