Auld Lang Syne

It's been quite a year.

Heck, it's been quite a week.

This week has been full. Full of travel. Full of family. Full of friends. Full of memories. Full of fun...

So here I sit on New Year's Eve in my parents' house while my dad is out, my kids are sleeping, and my husband is driving home from work in western Kansas. I'm watching HGTV and painting my fingernails a color called "Cinderella" and expecting to turn into a pumpkin before midnight rolls around.

Digging around the pantry I found this unopened bottle of deliciousness:

I introduced my mother to this liqueur during my years in Barcelona, and she loved it even more than I did. Every time I came home, I brought a bottle for her.

When the hubs and I moved back to the States, Mom decided that she would save her last bottle for a special occasion. Years passed, and she never did open up that bottle. She was always waiting for the perfect moment to come. Always thinking that a better time to indulge would be right around the corner.

In the end, that perfect moment never came.

In the end, she missed a chance to savor something she loved.

As I sit here on the eve of a new year drinking my mother's liqueur, I know that this silly bottle of alcohol has a lesson for me.

I am determined to savor.

I am not going to waste a moment waiting for a better time to see someone, to let people know I love and appreciate them, to help others.

It is trite, but in 2015 I plan to seize the day.

I think I have started well, or ended well, I guess. I have taken hours when I could have been hurrying off to do something else to try to keep some of Mom's traditions alive, visit a cousin in the hospital, sip coffee with a college roommate, tour another cousin's house for the first time, reconnect with a high school buddy and meet his amazing wife, and sit down with a friend from the Spain days whom I hadn't seen in 14 years.

I raise a glass to you, my friends. To time well spent. To moments savored.

Sing with me:

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup
and surely I’ll buy mine!
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS
We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS
We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS
And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS