We spent a quiet New Years at home, celebrating along with the East Coast and going to bed before midnight on our coast. Bubby and I got up early and had our breakfast while watching the Rose Parade on TV. Jeff, of course, was glued to the football goings on in his office. With my belief of how you spend New Years would be how you spent the rest of the year, it was important to me to be with my kids. Any and all. The plan was to meet for lunch at Sydni’s and then go see the floats from the Rose Parade. We arrived at Syd’s hungry. “Happy New Year, let’s eat,” I said as we walked in the door. There was no smell of food in the air. “Where’s brunch” I asked puzzled. Apparently there was a mix up. Syd and Scotty hadn’t prepared anything and we were all starving. We were in great spirits though, had a good laugh over it and went out to eat. So what we can expect from this new year was to laugh at unexpected things and make them work. It turned out to be better this way because there was no clean up. We were then off to see the floats in Pasadena. I remember when we could just go up and see them years ago. Now it was ten dollars a pop. Oh well – more money for the city. Well let me tell you if the year goes anything like my first day of the year, then I’m sure it is truly my year to make all of my dreams into realities. The line was five blocks long and wasn’t moving. Jeff and Scotty dropped us off with Bubby in the wheel chair and they went to find a parking spot. I waited for a while and then decided to find out if they had a handicapped line for wheelchairs. Sydni and Bubby stayed on the line and I walked the five long blocks filled with families waiting to get into the front gate. “Excuse me,” I politely said to the girl at the closed gate at the front of the line. “Do you have a handicapped line?” Before I could get the answer. A large man all in white walked up from inside. “You’ll have to ask him.” As he started to open the gate I walked up to him and before I could open my mouth he looked at me and said, “Go up and buy your tickets, cash on the left credit on the right”. I never asked, I just led the entire crowd in, thanking the universe as I bought the tickets. I called Syd. “I got the tickets come on down. I felt a little guilty for a minute but, then I saw they were letting everyone in so it was ok. We had a lot of fun walking around in the cold. Seeing all those beautiful floats up close. Jeff and Bubby gave up after a while and just kicked back in the sun but Syd, Scotty and I forged on taking in the whole thing. We must have walked at least two miles. Sydni bought my weakness, a soft pretzel. I only had two bites though. Luckily it was pretty dry so I didn’t crave any more. I pulled out my brown rice crackers and munched a little. I was fine with that. When it was time to leave. We were told we would have to walk about a half mile down the road to get out. We noticed the ambulance and some cop cars at an exit fence about five hundred feet away from where we were and figured they might let us through since we were pushing Bubby in a wheel chair. We walked up to the gate to ask and lo and behold just as we got there a large man in all white opened the gate to come in from the outside. We never even asked, we just walked out. Big angels in white were opening doors for me where ever I went. We all felt the energy of things going our way. The half mile walk to the car was filled with joy, laughter, and family. What a great way to start the New Year!