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A NEW YEAR'S TOP 10 LIST OF THINGS TO DO (AND NOT DO)

By Russell A. Irving

Another New Year's Eve is upon us!
Which means that we made it to live into another year! And, we can celebrate it with our spouse!

Before you take that plunge into the evening's festivities, though, how about a littlle bit of 'prep work', if you will. Nothing heavy-duty in terms of labor or even that much in time. And, the pay-off could be quite substantial. So, without further ado...

#1 Decide to forego the restaurant route. - "What?", you say. "It's tradition!" -- Well, I say, think back to past times when you have gone out to dinner on New Year's Eve. How often was the quality of the food mediocre at best? The service was fair to horrendous? Menu options limited? Mandatory 25% tips added to your bill? You ended up waiting an hour or longer for your table, despite having reservations? You were rushed to finish by management, so that the next couples could take your seat before it even had an opportunity to cool-down? -- Instead, either plan for a quiet dinner at home or at friends'/relatives'.

#2 Drive as little as possible. - We all know that this evening is often a 'rite of passage' for teens and other fairly new drivers. A time for mixing booze with car keys. Add a pinch of black ice on the road or inches of snow and you end up with a formula for crashes and hospital food. (Sometimes, even the typical food served after a funeral.)

#3 Don't drop a large wad on the evening. - Unless you have a large (emphasis on the word 'large') amount of discretionary income.

#4 Share part of the evening with your children. - Let New year's Eve have a 'family' flavor to it. A great tradition.

#5 Watch the amount of booze that is consumed. - If you have guests, be a responsible host/hostess. Don't let someone drive home drunk. Order a cab for them, arrange for a sober friend to take them home, or let them take the couch (instead of your spouse). For yourselves, too much indulgence will dull one's physical, sexual prowess/response.

#6 Cook something or put-it-out, together. - Cooking, food... What great aphrodisiacs in the emotional as well as physical sense of the word.

#7 Set-aside 'adult' time. - When you and wife or hubby re-acquaint one another to the joys of sex and cuddling.

#8 If not interested in #7, do it anyway. - You obviously need it! And, if it's been a while since you both communicated this way, then it might not go exactly as either one of you fantasized that it would. But that's okay. Practice might not make 'perfect', but it can lead to 'fantastic'.

#9 Set expectations, reasonably low, for the evening. - Seldom do these major holidays pan out as we dreamt that they would and should. This way, you reduce the odds of saying, New Year's Day, "I hope that the year is better than the night was!"

#10 Count your blessings instead of making New year's resolutions. - The former is real and 'now'. The latter is far too often simply wishful thinking and fanatasy-planning. Live in the here-and-now.

'Nuff said!