Happy New Year!

For New Year's Eve, we went to a friend's cottage north of Huntsville. Lindsey and Tony bought a cottage there this summer. Lindsey said she wanted to spend New Year's Eve in front of a bonfire by the lake at her cottage. It was a romantic idea and she invited us to join them.

We had an early dinner, then walked out to the middle of the frozen lake in the dark. It was stunning. We trekked over knee-deep snow. The Man wore snow shoes. As we got closer to the middle of the lake, Lindsey or Tony would say, It's about six inches deep here, or It's about knee deep here, or It's about waist deep here, and finally, If you walk out to that snow-covered boulder, it's about shoulder deep, but I wouldn't because the lake isn't frozen through yet.

Still, we were quite far from shore and all around the lake were lit cottages with their occupants preparing to ring in the new year. Lindsey's property looked like a Christmas card from where we stood - warm lights illuminating from a wooden cottage against a back drop of snow-covered trees. How I wished I had remembered my camera.

Then we trekked back across the ice to shore. Lindsey dug out the fire pit from the snow and Tony shovelled the snow to look for their firewood. The Man splintered wood to make kindling while I cleared the pit area for us to stand around. Across the lake, we heard a cottage of revellers waiting for the chime of midnight.

But we didn't know exactly when midnight would come. All our watches and cell phones were off from each other. There was a 10-minute span of when midnight might strike. We decided we'd go with one of the cell phones. Lindsey's daughters joined us. At 11:50, our bonfire was roaring. We brought out champagne and tall glasses and kept them cool in the snow. Lindsey turned off all the lights to the cottage. It was just us, the stars, the bonfire, and the lights from across the lake waiting for the new year. At 12:00 on the cell phone, we toasted to the new year. A couple of minutes later, we heard the cottage across the lake count down and at zero, they set off sparklers. So we toasted to the new year again. And just to make sure we didn't miss it, we counted down a third time and toasted to the new year.

It was snowing on the way back to the resort. It seemed we were the only car on the road. After a while, we saw flashing lights behind us. I said, "It must be an ambulance." The flashing lights came closer. I said, "Why doesn't it have its siren on? Better pull over and let it pass."

The Man pulled over on the shoulder. The flashing lights pulled up behind us. It was the OPP! The officer came up and asked when we last had alcohol, whether we had open alcohol in the car, and finally, asked to see The Man's driver's licence. I said, "Were we speeding?"

"No," said the officer. "You were going 70 in a 90 zone. We just wondered why."

The Man said, "It's snowing, it's late, there are no other cars on the road, we're not familiar with these roads, so we're just taking our time."

"You driving back to Toronto?"

"No, we're driving back to Deerhurst. We're here for the week."

I guess the officer determined The Man wasn't drunk and we didn't smell of alcohol, so he bid us a good night and we went on our way. In retrospect, we were pulled over for going too slow even though there were no cars on the road. That was a first for us. But it was a good tiding.

May this year bring you much good tidings and contentment.