December 30, 2017

Saturday 9: It's Just Another New Year's Eve

Saturday 9: It's Just Another New Year's Eve (1977)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

Welcome to the last Saturday 9 of 2017! Thanks for a great year, everyone.

1) In this song, Barry Manilow declares New Year's Eve is "just another night." How do you feel about 12/31? Is it a special occasion or just another night? It was more of a big deal when I was younger. My family often got together with friends or cousins to ring in the new year.  Once we married, Tim and I often invited our families and friends to celebrate with us. I guess it was once everyone had kids of their own that we started celebrating with just us and the kids until around 1999, when we became part of a large group of friends at our church who were all of a similar age and raising kids who were all around the same ages. That group was like family to us and we had great parties on New Year's Eve. These days we usually spend New Year's Eve at home with Tim asleep long before midnight and me watching TV or reading. Once in a while we get together with friends but it's pretty low key and usually over once the ball comes down.

2) Barry sings that in the past year, "we've made mistakes." What in 2017 do
you wish you could do over?  I really can't think of anything. All though it was a bit stressful financially 2017 was the first year of our youngest grandson's life, our daughter got married, and for the first time since our son left home 11 years ago, it feels like our family is healing and will be okay.

3) He also sings of happy nights with friends. Tell us about a really good time you had in the past year.  It probably should have been our daughter's wedding day, but I was suffering from heat exhaustion at the time, though I didn't know it until the next day. I have beautiful memories of her happiness, but I really didn't mingle too much because I wasn't feeling well. So, with that out of the running, I'd have to say it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving when our whole family was together and it became apparent that something had shifted and we had a wonderful day. I don't think we believed we'd ever see our family together like that.

4) The song references growing wiser, as well as older. What's something you learned or discovered in 2017?  I worked through a lot of stuff in my daily Bible study and prayer time. Really deep, personal stuff that I'm not going to get into here, but God was really teaching me a lot this summer. I'd like to believe I'm a much different person now than I was 6 months ago.

5)  What do you wish you had spent more time doing during 2017?
Pretty much anything. Every spare penny we had went into the wedding so I didn't get to go do too many things until after it was over. I guess reading would be a good second-choice answer. I spent too much time online this year.

6)  What was the smartest thing you did all this past year?
  Refuse my daughter's pleas to rent a "rustic" wedding venue and insist we hold the wedding at my step-father's farm. We couldn't have had a more beautiful setting and we didn't have to go into debt over it.



7)  As this year comes to a close, what are you most grateful for?  My family and friends.
 
8) When this week's featured artist, Barry Manilow, was a jingle writer, he wrote the famous "You deserve a break today at McDonald's" song. When's the last time you visited the Golden Arches?  For food? I can't remember. It's been a good while since I don't really care for their food. I will often swing through the drive-thru for a drink when I am on the road, though.
 
9) Random question: In high school, were you more popular with the boys or the girls? I suppose with girls since my closest friends were girls, but I had a lot friends that were boys and I actually tended to prefer hanging out with guys since there seemed to be less drama with them. I didn't date in high school thanks to my dad's strict rules. I don't know if that helped or hindered my social life. 

Thanks for stopping by and reading my answers today. If you enjoyed the music-based theme and want to read more or perhaps join in yourself, please visit Sam @ the Saturday 9 site for the questions, rules and link up.


14 comments:

  1. I'm sorry you don't have more happy first-hand memories of your daughter's big day. But that's why photos are so important! You can enjoy it all now when you're feeling better.

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    1. It is and it was her day and she was happy and overwhelmed by how perfectly everything turned out. (I may have missed my calling as a wedding planner...lol)

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  2. I enjoyed your answers, Stacy! Sorry to read you felt so bad at your daughter's wedding but I am glad to read again that your family is healing and happy. God is good!

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  4. Sounds like a deep year--and hooray for the family beginning to heal. That is such a hopeful feeling.

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    1. It was a deep and introspective year for me and yes, I am feeling very hopeful for the future of our family. Finally. And that's a great feeling!

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  5. Sounds like you did a lot of soul searching this year. Good for you. Hard work, it is. Learn much, you may. And for some reason I'm channeling Yoda, good grief. Happy New Year!

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    1. Have you been watching Star Wars? LOL Happy New Year to you, too!

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  6. OMG- I just realized that we are both married to Tim's who will also be fast asleep on NYE leaving us to do our own thing. lol . Love the wedding plan- you were right at that. Happy New Year!

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  7. I'm still so taken with the way your daughter's wedding arch turned out! I didn't realize you weren't feeling well that day; we sure can't tell from your photos!

    So happy God heard your prayers re. your family healing. I've a hunch 2018 will bring an abundance of blessings.

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    1. I don't think I realized myself how bad off I was. It was at least 90 degrees that weekend and while I drank water, I guess I didn't drink enough for all the crazy running around I was doing. All (and I do mean ALL of them from the waist down) of my muscles were cramping on Friday and Saturday and I couldn't get relief at all. Late Saturday and Sunday the lightheadedness kicked in. It took a few days to get back to normal.

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