a new year

One of the things I love about New Year's Eve and welcoming a new year is that it provides a chance to reflect on the year past and look forward to the year ahead. On Saturday night, I was able to do that in a rather extraordinary way.  It started with dinner at Haute Dish (go and eat the Mac & Cheese. Trust.) with a big group, continued with drinks at Urban Eatery and finally returning to my friend Andrea's to ring in the new year.

Andrea had the idea to write things that we wanted to say good-bye to from 2011 on eggs and throw them at midnight, symbolizing letting go of the past and moving forward. After what's transpired the past year, and especially the last few months, this was a really thoughtful exercise for me.

Armed with our eggs, two bottles of champagne and noise makers, we started the two-block trek to Lake Calhoun to say good-bye to 2011 and hello to 2012. The walk to the lake was beautiful (and slippery!) with the streets having been recently blanketed with snow. We reached the lake at exactly midnight, counted to three and threw our eggs onto the ice. Fireworks started going off someplace in the city and we got our money's worth out of the noise makers while we popped two bottles of champagne. After a few minutes our rowdy crew made the trip back to Andrea's to continue the celebration.

It was indeed a very happy way to begin the new year.

Andrea & I