It’s that day, the one that marks the end and morphs into the new. I know I’m supposed to say how I regret this and that and promise that I will whatever this coming year, but the 31st has its own special significance.

It is after all the night when too many people party too hard. I remember the one-way street in St Louis that an approaching driver thought was a 2-way. That may have marked the beginning of  “we can cook it better, be safer, and enjoy ourselves” without being crowded into a banquette  for two hours to eat, drink, and hurriedly vacate the table.

We are now masters of the beautiful meal, the great wine and accompanying champagne, the cheeseboard, and the scrumptious dessert. What will it be this year? There is the tenderloin that almost has no equal or the multi-pound lobster that comes cracked and ready to rip, or even the butterflied lamb. It almost doesn’t matter. They all work as fabulous entrees. It’s the dessert that has me fretting.

Of course, chocolate plays a major role. A dessert cup of beautiful, multi-flavored sorbets  surrounding the chocolates might work. Oh, how I wish I had a Paco Jet, that magic machine that lets you be a master of individual scoops. I just need a small loan…

As for the chocolates, there are so many to choose from. I could go to my everyday cache of Junior Mints, or Rittersport Marzipan Bars, but this is a special night. One that calls for at least 65 % cacao, something like Green &  Black’s Espresso Bar that can so easily be broken into mouth-watering bites of ecstasy.

You see it is about the food, not the resolutions. After all it was the year of so many bad headlines, it was hard to focus on the victory of our new president. Gloom and doom filled many a recycling bin. It was the year that made me skip the news and focus on the puzzles and food and wine news.

So it was not as wretched a year as some would have us believe. Time to move forward. Throw out the hard news. Read about the good life, do the puzzles, and raise your glass to what will be: a year of hope, a time of promise, and a future filled with multiple sections of  newspapers worth opening.

Cheers.