The new year

so here we are again, turning the clocks to a new year, celebrating the fact that we made it, hopefully in one piece.
My family usually does stay awake and go somewhere to celebrate the renewal of the calendars and hug each other and why not cry to sometimes as they hug.
Tradition that has been lost in my life since I live with a man who do not seem to care much for this type of celebrations. So we usually just go to bed and wake up to a new number, and that is that.
How strange has been this transition into who I have become with the years and with the fact that I live in such a different culture.
Why do we celebrate some times I wonder....
For years I never knew what it meant to not have a family member with me. Life was simple and we celebrated the fact that we could all be together all the time, or most of the time. Then families started to grow, branches of all the tree started to grow in different direction and yet we were still all there, even when we were not.
Today though is different. My mother is not with us, my husband best friend from childhood is not here either...and I can't help but to see life with a different lense.
I remember as we drove home from the airport, my husband and I, that when I was a little child, in elementary school, I used to imagine with my friends how old would I be in 2000! At the time you count as a child, you never really see yourself as an adult, and the number then means nothing really, everybody is ancient past 20 when you are a child. Yet I remember thinking very well how I thought I may make to be that old! I certainly never imagine I was going to be this far away, speaking another language and not celebrating the start of the New Years.
I traveled back from my long visit to La Paz yesterday and to say goodbye to the year we watched a movie on tv and then went to sleep at 10:00 pm.
Weird thing is that for whatever reason I woke up at 3:00am and so I guess is just my body saying hello to the new year.
Hello 2017! Never imagine I would live this long, even if it is not really that long yet :-)
Happy new year!