This year I “rang in the new” as usual amongst extended family (mostly on my wife’s side) and accompanied by home-made vodka-based wassail, a few tastes of a fruity thing called 99 Apples, and shots of Plum Schnapps. The aforementioned liquids made our annual impromptu basement recording studio jam session sound even more horrible than usual but seem even more fun at the time. Picture a band of 4-6 untrained adults handed instruments and taught a simple chord or rhythm and told “Just keep playing this!” while the one actual musician among us plays various tunes on his guitar and as many as seven rambunctious children provide as many as seven different, unrelated, yet simultaneous sets of vocals.
Also had a fun argument with a pro-Iraq-war friend of the family. Neither of us had any success changing the other’s point of view, but it was nice being able to discuss both sides of the issue without anybody getting angry or accusing the other of warmongering or treason or hating America.