Happy New Year

                                                 HAPPY NEW YEAR
         New Year’s Day dawned with snow falling from a heavy sky that promised more to come.  Neva got up and put on her robe.  Everyone had today off so no reason to hurry.

         The holidays were over once more.  Another year in the books and a new one starting.  Every year the new number seemed to come around faster.

         Looking around the living room at the holiday decorations, she sighed.  Not as much fun taking them down and packing them as it was putting them up.  The end of the holidays was a relief and it was also a letdown.  She thought, now begins the long end of winter.

         The long wait for spring or as her mother used to call it, The Silly Season.
         She went to the kitchen to make the coffee.  When did we get to be a predictable old married couple?  They had started watching TV, the crowd at Times Square and both thought how glad they were not to be there.  They went to sleep before the ball dropped.  Some party animals we’ve turned into.

         A year ending and a new one beginning makes you stop and think.  Thoughts like where did the time go.  Yesterday wasn’t I twenty five?  How did I get to be sixty?  How did I get to be grandma?  I was the daughter of a vet, now I’m the mother of one! 

         Peter came into the kitchen.  “Happy new year,” he said.

         “Back at you.”
         

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