Mr. Fuddy and Mrs. Duddy

I'm almost positive that we used to have oomph.

Yes, indeed, somewhere around this place, we probably have the pictures to prove it. Though I've never really liked crowds, I do like a little adventure and a shameless excuse to wear a funny hat. Somewhere around here we have photos of a couple of mad hatted twenty-somethings greeting the New Year with a countdown and kiss.

And somewhere around here, we probably have a shot of a couple of thirty-somethings hosting a New Year's Eve Game Night with friends.  By this time, I alone wore the hat, but he generally acquiesced at midnight for the mad hatted New Year's kiss. 

It was when we turned into forty-somethings

 that things began to head south. 

The girls would babysit or spend the night with their friends for travel safety. All of our friends joined us in the aging process and stayed off the roads as well.

By age forty-eight, we had  morphed into what we are today,  a couple of fuddy duds whose biggest accomplishment on New Year's Eve  is staying awake long enough to watch that giant waterford crystal ball  drop for a bunch of strangers  in Times Square.

Did I mention that we're both turning 50 in 2011? 

Well, we are. By the time the next ball drops, we will have tumbled over over the proverbial hill. That being the case, we thought it wise to put forth just a wee bit of effort in the oomph department this New Years Eve.  Here's what we came up with:

A stroll downtown,

a dinner for two,

a movie by a cozy fire,

and a kiss at midnight. 

Just call us party animals... 

I wanted to begin the night by capturing the final blue hour of 2010, and I had chosen a winter wonderland of twinkly white lights in our downtown to take the photo.

Unfortunately, the twinkly lights were still dark when we got there.  We waited for them to turn on, but apparently our town planners are fuddy duds themselves because they never did. We finally headed to the restaurant to beat the crowd.

I did catch the last blue hour photo of 2010 before we went inside. 

Oh well…

Our dinner was nice but I wouldn’t recommend the shrimp and grits there. The shrimp lived up to its name, and the grits were more in the line of cornmeal mush. And why is it that no matter what fancy name you give an oyster appetizer, it still tastes oystery?

We forgot to pick up a DVD for our fireside adventure and had to choose one from the family stockpile. I wanted Somewhere in Time; he wanted Pirates of the Caribbean. We compromised on Miss Congeniality, and he began to pile up the firewood.

Unfortunately, that part of the plan went a little south too because the newly purchased firewood turned out to be green.  He battled that stubborn little stack for the entire first hour of the movie because he hates to call uncle.  On the upside, we don't have that pesky pile of newspaper to haul to the the recycling center anymore.

It’s a good thing he set his blackberry just in case...

It woke us up just a minute before midnight, contorted like a couple of Chinese acrobats in front of a blank video screen and a dead fire.

But never fear.

I scrambled to put on my funny hat, and we stared at the blackberry until the numbers changed to 12:00.

I hastily shouted 2...1... because it's not New Years without a countdown. Then, we shared the kiss because it's not New Years without that either. Then he sent texts to the daughters because he's a high tech fuddy. Then, the party animals headed up to bed with kinks in our necks.

And thus ended our last New Year’s Eve as forty-somethings.  Not exactly what we had planned, but we choose to look at our glass half full. At least as we stumble over the hill next year, we won’t have far to fall.

So, how did you spend your New Year's Eve?