New Year's Eve 2009 Celebration - Why Hello Lewy!?

New Year’s Eve 2009, I wanted to personally escort this year out and welcome in 2010; the decade where I believe my husband and I will really begin to live our lives together.

Magic in the Air, this is it!

Last night was a special night because it was the end of a decade, one where there were some pretty tough challenges to surmount. But we got through them; we came out on the other side of the troubles stronger and better. All of the events from this past year left my mind focusing on one thing, “Well, let’s just kiss this year GOODBYE!”

Dinner last night, I wanted it to be extra special. I bought a beautiful piece of Wild North Atlantic Salmon with the intention of making Salmon with a Lemon Butter Sauce and Asparagus. I spent too much time cleaning and writing yesterday’s blog post that I was running late on dinner.

One of my tricks when this happens is to make the mom’s a salad to get them started and keep them out of the kitchen. I had their favorite lettuce, Iceburg variety, tomatoes and cucumbers. I whipped up an Italian Vinaigrette dressing and served both moms’ and my husband a salad.

One by one, first my mom comes out to the kitchen with her dish. “Hey don’t you have any Feta cheese?” I wasn’t at an extremely crucial step for the Salmon dish I was preparing so I stopped and put some cheese on her salad. Off she walks back to her room with her dish.

I say, “Ok Ma, just keep your dish in the room, I need everyone out of the kitchen.” She walks like she heard me.

Within 30 seconds, my husband comes up from downstairs with his dish, “mmmmm… that was good!” I turn and say, “Please you need to stay out of the kitchen.” He quickly puts his dish in the dishwasher and runs like the wind.  Very smart man.

Another 30 seconds passes, out comes my Mother in Law. “Oh boy, now that was good!”

Really?!

“Ok, just leave your dish. Come on. I will never get this meal prepared if you all keep coming into the kitchen to compliment me on the salad that I gave no thought to throwing together. Now please, stay out of the kitchen!”

Off my Mother in Law runs, smart lady, I see where my husband gets his intelligence.

I was pretty hungry and each interruption was keeping me from eating my special Salmon dinner that I had planned for 2 days. Anyone who knows me, if I'm hungry you better stay away.  Our moms and my husband must have forgotten because they all had their "hold you over salad."  I didn't.  I was hungry.

Another 30 seconds passes.

“Don’t Do it!”

I hear my Mother-in-law say once more, "Don't Do IT!"

Next thing I know, in she comes with my mom’s empty salad dish, followed by my mom saying, “Is that all we are having for dinner? I’m still hungry.”

Oh come on! I am now at the crucial part of the recipe. I didn’t want the butter to separate; it’s a fine line to go from perfection to overdone with fish recipes. Last night, I was determined to have a perfect piece of fish with lemon butter sauce.

Once again I chased everyone out of the room. I did not see the humor, my hunger pains were making me feel like a lioness ready to pounce on her prey.

Everyone finally was served their perfect fish with a fine lemon butter sauce. It was perfection.

I ate alone. I wanted to sit and enjoy my dinner by myself in the dining room, so I did. It was amazing. I thought about the events leading up to my fine dinner and began to laugh when I thought of my mother-in-law saying to my mom, “Don’t do it.” She tried to stop her from going into the kitchen again, my ML understood that it was getting late and I was on a mission to make a perfect piece of fish for each of us. But to no avail, my mom was oblivious and kept walking toward the kitchen with her dirty dish.

My ML, she jumped up and took the dish from my mom, she chose to take the “bullet” for her, and she knew I’d probably be upset that once again my dinner preparation was being interrupted.

She was right. But later, once my hunger was squelched with such a superb meal, I found the humor and we all got a very hardy laugh.

Super! Now I can prepare for the evening ahead.

Mission: to stay awake until 12:05 AM

I began to drink lots of water. I knew we would be toasting in the New Year with a bottle of Champagne. From past experience, I know that if I’m fully hydrated I can drink champagne and not have a hangover in the morning.

Drinking my water, I prepared little appetizer snacks for my husband and me. I believed that if we ate food we wouldn’t sleep. I made popcorn shrimp with sesame seeds, sliced up a bit of fine cheddar from Australia, dark chocolate and fruit was placed on dishes. Fancy like a real cocktail party.

My husband, he even helped in the kitchen in order to pass the time together. It was fun. I taught him how to devein shrimp. He is a quick learner and helped speed up the appetizer preparation.

11:45pm… only 15 more minutes for this decade … Hurry!

We finished our snack and rushed downstairs to pop the cork on the Champagne and watch the big screen TV. I wanted to see the new ball drop. Dick Clark was on TV, he was in rough shape, but it was nostalgic, I had to see the ball drop. 2 minutes and counting…

Squeak, Squeak, Squeak

My husband and I look at each other and start to laugh, no way... what impeccable timing for a hallucination! I rush up the stairs. I have 2 minutes to tuck my mom back in bed and see the ball drop in Time Square.

I believe that I can make it.

I get to the top of the stairs to find my mom. She says, “That little kid, he is bothering me.” I didn’t want to tell her that there was no little kid; it would take me past my 2 minute time limit. I escort her to her room to see the kid and tuck her in.

As I entered her room I said, “You, come on, let’s go. Your mom is waiting outside.” My mom, I tucked her in and told her that the kid’s mom was outside to pick him up and Brian was escorting him to the door to make sure he got in the car. That’s all I needed to say, she was in bed and I had 30 seconds to run downstairs before the stroke of midnight. I was going to make it!

Walking to the door to leave my mom says, “Can I have a drink of water.”

I had to make a decision, give her the water or run downstairs. She had water on her nightstand so I handed it to her and rushed away. I sprinted.

I missed it!

I missed the fucking ball dropping after all that preparation.  I did make it back to the room at 12:00:30am. Oh well. We got a really great laugh. Starting off the New Year chasing my mom’s hallucinations was like a scene from a well written sitcom. Thank God for DVR's, we went back in time and I got to see the ball drop.  I got to hear Dick Clark's version of our numbering system, "...14, 12, 10, 11, 10, 9...."  I couldn't stop laughing.

My mom, she gave us another memory, a memory that will make us laugh more than once throughout our lives. Maybe next year I will be able to see the New Year in or maybe next year I should just go to bed at 9pm like I usually do.