PreTeena by Allison Barrows for April 11, 2020

I have no problem staying up to celebrate New Year’s, I watch the fireworks on the Sydney bridge that is spectacular, toast the New Year, and go to bed whenever tired.

Our family’s tradition…which may seem odd to some: stand out on the front lawn, make a LOT OF NOISE, with everything from bells to train horns; once the din dies down enough for you to hear it, my niece plays Auld Lang Syne on the bagpipes.

Then we go inside and have a meal of hot dogs. I hate our family tradition of hot dogs.

My husband & I have a CD called “Meowy Christmas”. It’s like the barking dogs doing “Jingle Bells”, except with cats. The last track is “Auld Lang Syne”. We also had cats. One year, right at midnight, we cranked our stereo and played it. One of our neighbors came running up, & knocked on our door. “What are you doing to your poor cats???”

When I was a child, my parents always went out for NYE. Us kids would wake up in the morning and, at each of our places at the table, we’d each find a paper hat and some kind of noisemaker: horn, those curly-blow things, etc. After my parents woke up, we’d have another New Year’s celebration.

We.. watch the occasion on CNN and being two hours later it happens at 10:00 for us.

Somewhere around age 28, the whole idea of going to a party loses its appeal.

I thought Teena was a pajama kind of girl.

I don’t like all of the noise.