We’re having New Year’s in Santiago! Well, not literally, but we will be celebrating in the Chilean capital’s time zone. Goes like this: when the clock strikes midnight in that South American city, it will be 7 p.m. our time. I can’t take credit for the idea, but I do think it’s brilliant. We can pretend we’re ringing in the New Year while still getting our children to bed on time. It’s perfect for families who want to do something that night but don’t want to leave the kids at home. Our closest pals who are also parents will be coming over (can’t understand why those friends without babies declined, or, rather, didn’t even respond to the invite in the first place) for a feast (haven’t exactly nailed Chilean cuisine yet but I’ll come up with something) and cocktails (or Coke-tails for the pregnant/breast-feeding/ driving moms). Santiago is proving to be a bit of a tough theme so far, but apparently people there wear red underwear on December 31. It’s a start. The festivities start at 4 p.m., and just you wait till this dance party gets underway.

 

I’m not kidding about the dancing: plug in the iPod and crank Reel 2 Real’s “I Like to Move It”, and man, do two-year-olds shake it like a Polaroid picture! Some people refer to tracks like Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue”, Lipps Inc’s “Funkytown”, Madonna’s “Give It 2 Me”, or Britney Spears’s “Womanizer” as guilty pleasures (or, more realistically, in much more profane terms), but I have no shame in openly admitting I love cutting a rug to pretty much anything with a bass line. (Please believe me when I say I like good music, too.) Coming to our place for New Year’s? Dancing is mandatory. I doubt I’ll get any arguments from the toddlers.

 

Happy New Year. Hope yours kicks off a rockin’ 2009.