Happy New Year

We had our usual wild and crazy New Year's Eve: Bowling and pizza with the kids at 5 p.m., followed by going to the store and shopping for our New Year's Day party, then putting kids to bed, then watching a movie, then waking kids up to watch the ball drop, then dropping into bed ourselves. Party animals are we, I'll tell you. The bowling alley manager wondered why my husband and I didn't come to the big New Year's Eve bash there -- the one that runs through midnight, not 7 p.m. like the earlier family event -- and I had to admit that we don't go out much as a couple. And really, you know, that suits us just fine. Give me a choice between ringing in the new year with a bunch of strangers with alcohol, or with my son and daughter swinging noisemakers and swilling sparkling apple cider, I'll take the latter every time. The fact is, we were pretty much homebodies before we had kids, too. But it's nice now to have such a sweet excuse.