2015! Purr.

2015!

This new year crept up on me quietly- because I allowed it to do so. I wouldn't call it a "resolution", but I have noticed in 2014, I have wanted a bit more quiet. Maybe less preparation, more laissez-faire. Not in the economic term but in the literal translation "You let to do".

More house cat, less Border Collie. 

New Year's Day, for most of the past 14 or so has meant our annual NYD Open House afternoon. My Border Collie in high gear, baking, decorating, cleaning, perfecting. The 8' dining table so squeezed full of food that the decoration of the table, and the chandelier have to accommodate. Two or three specialty cakes, tons of cookies, bowls of candy, savory tarts, European cheeses, nuts,  fruits sparking with sugar; never enough neighbors and friends to make much of a dent. There was punch with blobs of sherbet floating in the pink sweetness and a big keg of hot apple cider. It gave me a reason to un-decorate Christmas and re-decorate for New Years Day. The sadness of taking all the ornaments off the tree was replaced with Border Collie urgency get the tree prepared to be The Resolution Tree. Years of resolutions written on cards and hung on the tree by guests. Hundreds of them. It was always fun to read the tree. Childhood declarations to "Paly panio" or "Be nice to my sister", nestled next to the adult "Make more time to enjoy my family" and "Finally clean out the garage". And then the front door opening over and over with friends arriving to greet one another and start off the New Year with an afternoon of social simplicity. 

But this year my Border Collie didn't report for duty. Instead my inner house cat found curling up in the sunshine "making muffins" with my paws demanding enough. 

The Christmas trees are still just that, albeit with more droopy limbs and generous shed of needles. There is not a single cake to be found! No mountains of meringue with tiny little skiers, or dark chocolate buttercream with creme de menthe fillings crowd my "outdoor refrigerator". (This is the screen porch table which capably chills legions of food on an average New Year's Day.) I feel like maybe I should at least turn out a pie- after all tonight is a big "Game Night" in Ohio as the OSU football team takes on Alabama in the first NCAA play-off. Buckeye Pie appropriate. But instead I'm brewing my third glass of what I think of as Dutch tea- fresh mint stalks steeped in hot water, and enjoying the cold January 1st sunshine from inside. 

I do miss seeing the wonderful group of friends on New Year's Day that traditionally troops through  Cowfeathers.  But without my inner Border Collie nipping at my heels, my house cat may spend the day curled up in a warm place by the fire, until the conviction comes on that I should find someone to feed me.