Staying Home For New Year’s Eve

It’s not uncommon for people to spend New Year’s Eve at a bar, or party, drinking until they’re three sheets to the wind. It’s kind of what the holiday has turned into. I remember my younger days — before my boys — when I would spend it the same way.

If I wasn’t at a bar with a beer in my hand, I was at a friend’s house playing card games until the ball dropped on Times Square. Once the ball dropped and Dick Clark rocked in the New Year, back to the card games until the wee hours of the morn.

Things have changed over the past decade or so. I haven’t had a alcoholic beverage in probably six months and I can’t even remember the last time I went to a bar. The crazy nights gave way to early nights and I think a time or two, we didn’t even make to midnight.

My home is my sanctuary. While I am sure we could find a babysitter to watch the kids and go to one of the many parties still hosted by friends, my wife and I prefer spending this time at our home. Time is a fickle thing, and while the New Year is a time of rebirth and renewal, it also signals another year behind us.

We prefer to focus this time on being with family, because these years seem to fly by faster and faster. I write a lot about ways to improve a home, from proper decor to how to patch a hole in the wall, but, truth is, the best way to improve a home — regardless of how big or how small it is — is to fill it with a family.

Right now, our home is filled with crying, yelling and often fighting children, but we know that in a few years it will be eerily quiet. They’ll be playing sports, visiting friends’ houses and…ugh…going on dates.

No matter what I do to this home or how much money I put into fixing it up and making it beautiful, it will never be more perfect than it is right now. The crayola covered walls and scattered toys are my favorite decor…even if I can’t admit it to my children.

See also: