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Last Thursday night certainly looked different for a lot of people who typically like to bring the new year in with a pop and a bang. With many people choosing to distance themselves from large groups of people to a bad storm expected to roll through our community, the usual festivities just didn’t happen.

Personally, my new year’s eve plan didn’t deviate from what my plan has been for the last several years: home, pjs, a fire in the fire place, and in bed before 10 p.m. Yep, I’m old.

But, even though the celebration might not have gone as hoped for many people, the new year came right on in even without all the revelry.

For 2021 many people are hoping that those numbers will bring more joy than despair and more health and wealth than sickness and poverty.

Everyone I’ve seen since December 31, 2020 has said Happy New Year, and they said it with hope and trepidation instead of joy and exuberance.

I have found myself uttering those same words with the same emotions.

Although 2020 did deal some heavy blows against many people I know, there have been others who have fared reasonably well through the year. There have been joyful moments among all the doom and gloom we’ve seen around the world. Babies were born, seniors graduated from high school and we were even lucky enough to have a fairly normal football season – both high school and college.

As we move head-long into 2021, we are all hopeful but some of us are still a little skeptical that the change in the number at the top of the calendar will make much difference in our day-to-day lives. It’s like a birthday: do you really feel much different when you wake up on your birthday than you did the day before? I doubt it.

I am hopeful for this year. I hope that we see birthday parties again. I hope that we see proms and weddings and football games. I hope the vaccine that is beginning to make the rounds works. I hope a lot more than that: I hope we all have a happy new year.

We shall see.