New Year’s is my favorite holiday. Has been for several years now. Back at King College, my friend Kristen & I used to bring our pals from school home to Asheville for New Year’s eve. It became tradition:

The evening always began with taco salad. Kristen and I were best friends growing up, and I couldn’t count the number of times I had taco salad at her house. It’s a Mojonnier staple. But they do it well. Better than anyone else I know of, and so taco salad became our end-of-year celebratory meal.

After dinner, we’d move onto games. Cranium was usually the game of choice, though Pictionary and charades both got their fair share of floor time as well.

A movie followed game time. This mostly served as a way to get a nap in before heading downtown. Asheville, like many US cities, has a downtown New Year’s party called “First Night.” It is fantastic. Music, food, hippies, and of course, one of the best fireworks shows I’ve ever experienced.

So, this being my first New Year’s in San Diego, I wanted to start a similar tradition here. It turned out to be a great evening. We had 30 people show up, and let me tell you, if you’re going to feed 30 people, there is no easier or cheaper way to do it than with taco salad. We then played a rousing game of “Best of 2006 Charades,” which included the categories of movies, music, and TV. My favorite moments were watching Sheila trying to make us guess the movie “Slither” and Ben acting out “Dancing with the Stars.” I had the unfortunate task of trying to get my team to recognize my interpretation of Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous.” (That must never be spoken of again.)

After charades, we tried a new game that we simply call “Celebrity,” but has less to do with Hollywood than it does hostile takeovers á la ‘Risk.’ My friend April played a sneaky game & ended up dominating the room and owning us all.

We ended the evening by walking to the bay through Little Italy and watching the fireworks shoot off from Coronado. They were distant, but still the only way to ring in a new year!

At night’s end, I think we all had a great time. I know I did. Hanging out with old friends & new ones – it just doesn’t get much better. I look forward to many more New Year’s celebrations in San Diego!