Late December back in 2009...

In the final hours of the year 2009, an amazing thing happened.

I sent out my very first text message. And it was to, of all people, Joseph Hamm.

Last night, my husband and I hosted our group’s tenth annual New Year’s Eve party. Friends from college who hail from far-away places like Charlottesville, VA and Pittsburgh came just to sit on my new furniture.

We ate copious amounts of food, drank an assortment of liquid beverages (some more than others), bemoaned the fact that I did not receive the Wii American Idol Karaoke Revolution for my birthday, ate more food, and most importantly, played the Hitler game.

The Hitler game is not as subversive or as provocative as it sounds. (Usually.) It is a variation of “The Name Game.” A category is selected by a moderator (category example: “The Next President of the United States), and everyone writes down their selection for said category on a piece of paper. Here is a sample of the different people our friends selected as contenders for the next president of the United States: Harry Potter, Dick Clark, Gary Coleman, John Jennings, William Shatner, and Hitler. Inevitably, someone writes in Hitler. This is why it’s called the Hitler game. Brilliant, right?

The moderator reads off the names and then everyone takes a turn guessing who wrote what. If someone guessed, for instance, that I selected Dick Clark to be the next president, I would be out. No one wants to get out. Getting out is for losers.

You should probably try this game at your next gathering. All you need is paper and writing utensils and friends you know well who have terrific senses of humor. Friends who don’t think “Skinless Frank” is a great name for a newborn baby probably won’t like this game.

We did watch Dick Clark countdown to midnight. He, um, missed a number. Luckily, he caught it in time, or else the entire year would have been off by a second. What disarray there might have been…

The first New Year’s Eve party took place in Maryland eleven years ago. I was newly married and absolutely terrified that come midnight on the first day of the year 2000, we were all going to be nuked. I was one of those people who fretted and worried about a Y2K apocalypse but did nothing about it; we did not horde water or seek out shelters to go to in case of a zombie attack after radiation poisoning “changed” people.

What an anti-climactic New Year’s Eve that was.

2010 is going to be great. The 525,600 minutes of 2009 weren’t bad- they could’ve been better. Things I could have done without include: having to leave our church, the dissension and subsequent dismissal of my gallbladder, and that one moment of weakness when I agreed we would get a puppy this upcoming summer.

Good things about 2009… We have a roof over our head, John has a job, the kids have yet to get swine flu, I started my own freelance writing business, Caleb learned to read. (We forget what a big deal that is! Caleb is a reader! Now, when I spell things out to John, I have to either a) spell super fast or b) spell in Russian.)

This year, John’s best friend and our fellow “Hitler game” compatriot, Grant, kicked cancer’s ass.

2009 was an important year.

A personal resolution: This year, I resolve to lose the weight I gained back after my recent loss of the weight I gained during the pregnancy of my twins. This time, I’m going to actually keep the weight off and maintain a healthy lifestyle that incorporates some type of green living or something like that. Starting… Monday. Monday sounds good. Monday is the day one starts things. Until then, I have cookies and peanut brittle to devour, Christmas decorations to take down, and Dexter to watch. (I really could do without seeing so much of John Lithgow’s derriere this season.) I RESOLVE NOT TO LOOK AT JOHN LITHGOW’S DERRIERE THIS COMING YEAR! I will close my eyes when it comes on the screen.

Happy New Year friends, family, fellow bloggers, forest animals, mothers of multiples, speech therapists, and citizens of Middle-earth.

Dick Clark for President 2012.