Ending the Year

There is no shortage of things to do here on St. Croix tonight. Every restaurant and beach bar has dinner and music lined up to ring in the New Year. In addition, the week-long Crucian Christmas Festival is in full swing with Festival Village erected to offer carnival rides, local foods, dance performances and live bands tonight until 4 in the morning.

Tonight Bob and I are teaming up with our pals Adele and John for a last hurrah with Mary Anne, who will be moving to Florida in a couple of days. Not wanting to commit to one place all night, we're creating our own a la carte celebration. We'll convene at John and Adele's for dinner and then we'll go east to Chicken Charlie's Roadhouse to see Outlaw Brassie James, a great local rock and blues band. From there we'll work our way westward and backwards in time to Tutto Bene for a sampling of their Disco Night. If we still have enough energy, we'll stop in to Club 54 to see Banooba, a NY-based funk rock group very popular here on St. Croix.

I may need a nap before all the festivities, but more importantly, I want to sit today and take stock of this year and focus my thoughts on the new year. As I do every year on this day, I'll make a list of everything that I want to leave behind in 2006, and another list of everything that I want to welcome in 2007, and you can bet that quilting is going to top that list!