LOOKING BACK ON 2011....

How was your year? Was it all you expected?  How many surprises did you have? Did it look like this?  I call it a Crazy!!!....







The first of this year for me was absolutely crazy.  By February I got my footing, but up until then, it felt like I couldn’t get up. If I did, I got slapped back down and until I could stand up straight I thought I was not going to make it.  Ended up in the hospital but that turned out right, giving me a warning to behave and live my life without an ounce of worry....”I Can’t Afford That Luxury”!   That was a lesson I will remember for a long time.

Tonight as we approach the midnight hour I will be glued to the TV watching the ball drop at Time Square.

I will kiss my sweetheart of 50 years, 20 days and some minutes. I love that guy!  Years past we would be at some party somewhere with lots of noise and laughter but now the quietness at this waited hour each year is what we enjoy most.


Today is the planning of the food for tomorrow...New Years Day.  Got to have those black eyed peas....

.......and collard greens in the South. 

Saying is, “eat lots of each and you will gets lots of pennies and dollars.”  Well not so here, that has been tried and proven wrong.  I came to the conclusion if you hold to that saying, you will limit what you can have so “don’t buy into it”!!!




Lots of cheers will be going on even right now in some parts of the world as this day ends....... 

When the clock strikes twelve tonight December 31st....

.....people all over the world cheer and wish each other a very Happy New Year.







 

For some, this event is no more than a change of a calendar. For others, the New Year symbolizes the beginning of a better tomorrow....











Here's some New Year Wishes from one country......and some people from the past....

  
An Irish toast goes like this (hope this is right Kevin Daly!!!)....

"In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, never in want."



 T. S. Eliot
"For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning."

Martin Luther
"Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth"

Walter Scott
"Each age has deemed the new born year
The fittest time for festal cheer"

Benjamin Franklin
"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man."

Edgar A. Guest
"A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I've played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year."
 

....and my favorite ...This says it all from a line from my favorite Movie: "When Harry Met Sally", Harry Burns
"And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."





So today where ever you are on the soil of the United States of America or some other country here’s my wish for you... “Best Wishes and God Bless you in this next year! Start it right by taking a minute to reflect on this past year and enjoy the best, put the worst behind you, take the lessons from it and cut your ties.  Move on to bigger and better things, they are out there, I see them on your horizon.”