New Year's at Grandma Rosell's

This year I went to my first New Year's at Grandma Rosell's. Kelly had told me about this tradition, but nothing she could have said would have fully prepared me for the festivities that were to come.

Grandma Rosell is in her 80's now (82... I think) so she isn't really into staying up till midnight to greet the New Year. With that in mind, we arrived at her house a little after 3 PM. 5 of her 9 children (with all of their hordes of children and grandchildren) trickled in until the little house was bursting at the seems by 5:30. There was potluck food of all types, football to watch, children running around and wrestling... all in all it was a pretty crazy party. And then the party started.

At about 6:30 or so we all gathered (some 50+of us) in Grandma's living room to do the traditional "Enjoy Yourself" dance to the Guy Lombardo song by the same name. The dance involves some minor choreography (mostly putting your hands in the air and hugging yourself) followed by a crazy (and noisy) conga-line through the house (and occasionally neighborhood). The song isn't long, but by the end I was starting to feel winded... then we proceeded to do the song and dance 5 MORE TIMES! It was exciting, to say the least.

After the song and dance, we all crowded around the kitchen counter for another long standing tradition: eggnog fizzies. This delightful drink is made of one part eggnog and one part Seven-Up, and is designed to make people unfamiliar with it sick. Since it was my first time at the party, I had the first opportunity to participate in a speed chugging contest. The first round ended in a tie... and I lost in the second round. Many more head-to-head fizzy chugging contests followed, with all of us screaming for our favorite contestants. The drink really wasn't all that bad, though I would have chosen to drink it more slowly if I had a choice.

Since Grandma's bedtime is around 7:30 these days, we then took the party to the Speedway for some traditional go-kart racing. I don't know how many years the Rosell family has been going to race, but the manager at the Speedway recognized them. They normally only let 8 people race at a time so the track doesn't get crowded, but for us they made an exception... 12 at a time. We flew around the little track, everyone muscling for position even though there was no way to determine a winner. Slipping, sliding, colliding... and then we went over to the slick track and did it again!

By 9 we were done racing and some of the racers headed over to In'n'Out for burgers... but I'm too old to stay up late any more. Kelly and I headed home (a drive of over an hour) and I was in bed by 11. I greeted the New Year doing one of my favorite things... sleeping next to my beautiful wife. What a great day... I hope to be able to join in the festivities for many years to come.

-Nathan