Hah. Bet you thought I did something wacky-crazy-fun. Sorry my dears, but you are mistaken.

Before, I waited for New Year's Eve, as in really anticipated it. We lit scandalous amounts of firecrackers; our house was the most brilliant in the street in terms of fireworks. We had all the lights turned on, the radio madly blaring music, the TV tuned to some random channel, we don't care what as long as it's on. Smoke from all the firecrackers were dancing inside the house and we didn't care. When the clock struck twelve, we jingled coins, we ran around happily greeting each other and exchanging kisses, and my sister and I jumped up and down in hopes of growing taller. And when the last firecracker has been exhausted, we dined on scrumptious meats and succulent fruits.

As the years passed, my enthusiasm for it still didn't wane, but apparently, fancy Christmas and New Year's Eve celebrations have been scrapped from family tradition (hence, negating the concept of tradition). Perhaps because my sisters are no longer here? I suppose there's not much point in throwing a mad party if there're only three of us here.

So tonight, it's an entirely different scene. The Christmas lights are turned on downstairs, but the whole house is dark. My mom is asleep, my dad is watching TV, and, apparently, I'm holed up in my room typing this out and I have music playing, the notes dancing around the room as if trying to distract me from the loneliness of having a far-less-than-stellar New Year's Eve celebration.

Outside, the world is going mad, and the night skies are glowing, absolutely glowing. the firecrackers going off make me think there's a raging thunderstorm outside.

I called my friends, of course. And I can almost hear them thinking, "Oh my, I'm sorry" when I tell them my family is welcoming 2001 sans fanfare and feasting.

I know I shouldn't be speaking of sadness on the first day of the new year. And I won't. So in the meantime, I will do what I do best: dance madly around the room, because, really, it's a happy new year.