For Auld Lang Syne -- New Year's Eve 2011
 

Just wanted to wish all GCers a Happy New Year! Enjoy whatever celebrations strike your fancy.

I also thought I'd share a video. I enjoy a rousing rendition of Auld Lang Syne as much as the next guy, but in this video you can hear it to the tune that Burns had in mind when he wrote it. Perhaps a little more introspective and poignant than the tune we're used to, it always catches me in the heart just a bit. The arms-crossed hand-holding for the last verse is the Scottish tradition for the song. (And a verse in Gaelic is a bonus.)

A Guid Hogmanay and a cup o' kindness tae all!

I Love Love this!!! Beautiful...Thank you for Sharing. Absolutely made my night.

LOL! I didn't know they used it in the SitC movie, but your taste is, again, impeccable. :D

A ball I attend every year ends with everyone crossing arms, holding hands, and singing this. We tend to lose the newbies at the second verse!

New Year's or Burns Night?

Happy New Year GCers! Hypoallergenic is having her 18th birthday party tonight even though her birthday isn't for two more weeks. She thought it was better to have it over break due to the tough course loads that she and her friends have. So it's a Happy New Year Birthday here :)

Stay safe tonight folks!

Neither - usually one in January, one in the summer (which is NOT the right season, but you take what you can get).

And I love this:
http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/12/...g-to-yourself/

So far our New Year's Eve includes Mimosas for the husband and I and Sparkling Cider for the kids. If anyone has any good ideas for family-friendly NYE fun, I'd love to hear them!

^^^^^^
I've always let the kids each have a friend spend the night but it might be late to do that for this year. We are very into board games as a family so we usually make it a game night and watch the ball drop on TV. Video games are part of that now, with Just Dance type games :)

Well, if it's late January, you can always say it's a nod to Burns Night. :D

I'm curious. Do you cross arms and hold hands throughout, or do you do it the traditional Scots way -- waiting until the first lines of the last verse (And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere! And gie's a hand o’ thine!)?

Cross and hold throughout - sway on first land of last verse.

Happy New Year everyone! No celebrating for me as I'm sick with some stupid sore throat/burning cough crap that decided to show up yesterday.

Have fun for me too!

That's how it's often done outside Scotland. Her Majesty took some grief when she was seen in a televised Millennium New Year's Eve celebration with Tony Blair and she seemed reluctant to take his hand. People (and some of the press) in England took her to task for being too reserved and not being wiling to be "one of the people." But folk in Scotland defended her, saying that, as Queen of Scots, she knew perfectly well not to join hands until the last verse. :D

I thought I'd show you what new year's looks like in Dubai. These aren't the fireworks I saw - I watched the ones at Atlantis on The Palm. But these are pretty spectacular. I believe they say it's the tallest fireworks demonstration in the world. I hate to think what living in the Burj must be like when those are going off!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=202037706556819

My husband and I went to "Watch Night" services at our church. We usually do this about every other year. I fell asleep during the sermon:) but woke up in time for the countdown, LOL. OK -the sermon was the only boring part; we had a good time reflecting on the past year and focusing on what was important to each of us in the new year.