Second day of 2020! Every time I see or say 2020, I get a mental picture of Barbara Walters. I'm not sure why - Hugh Downs before her or any of the hosts of 20/20 after Barbara might be expected to come to mind, but it's always the same. She had sort of a lispy way of saying it . . . I really need to get over that mental association.

We had a fun family New Year's Day dinner. I felt a little sorry for Valentine, the young student from Kenya, being thrown into a family gathering as boisterous as ours, but he seemed to take it in stride. I noticed he laughed a lot, and in the right places, so I know he was "getting" the conversation, loud and goofy as it was.

I took a picture of the table before anyone arrived. There were eleven of us, but the big old pine table handled it well. We had our meal at around 1:30 p.m., and did presents after that. The picture below has everyone in it (except Fred and me - I took it and only Fred's hand made it into the shot. Sorry.) From left to right, Granddaughter Jo-Ann, her mom, Monika, Jamie, Marie,  Bob at the far end of the table, Theresa, Bill, granddaughter Tangeni and Valentine. Monika was serving the dump cake they brought for dessert. Soooooo good! We all contribute to the meal - Theresa brought a great salad and Marie brought chicken and biscuits. We provided a beef roast and a ham, plus mashed potatoes and condiments. I forgot to cook the carrots I'd intended to have, but nobody cared. We had more than enough food and variety - there were plenty of veggies in the salad and carrots in the chicken.

We also had Bob & Theresa's dog, Sheree with us and her buddy, Jamie and Marie's dog, Otto joined the fun later in the afternoon. They are both great dogs and get along fine - as long as Otto remembers that Sheree does not share her doggie treats, EVER; and she isn't too anxious to share her humans, either, so gregarious  Otto has to make his greetings to Bob and Theresa very brief, otherwise he gets a warning growl from his cousin Sheree.

It was very special to start the New Year with a family party. Surprisingly, the clan doesn't get together that often, even though we all live only a few miles apart and share a cottage on the pond. There are diverse work schedules and it's difficult to find a time when everyone is free at the same time. And with JoAnn in college in Texas, it gets to be more of a challenge. I actually liked the idea of having a New Year's party instead of getting together on Christmas Eve. I think it worked out well; but I'm still sorry it was "mother having a meltdown" that caused the change in plans.

I'm drinking lots of water now, although I've yet to do the 13 cups Dr. Bugbee suggested. I can easily do seven cups of plain water - and with two or three cups of green tea each day and two glasses of milk, I figure I get pretty close. That's not counting my morning decaf. Thirteen cups seemed like a lot, but I found out the rule of thumb has changed. According to the Mayo Clinic site, that isn't far off the mark. One of the nurses in the ER on Sunday told me she thought Dr. Bugbee suggests 13 cups thinking patients may try harder and at least get in 8 or so, which is way more than most people drink each day, according to people I've spoken to. I have to say, it hasn't been terribly hard for me to do seven cups of water - which is about four more than I'd usually drink each day. I figured that taking on that amount of water I'd probably gain weight, but the opposite has happened. Go figure. So far, it's all been good, and no more vertigo! Happy 2020!