New Year's Eve: Our 3rd annual burning of the Christmas tree. Flames 10, 15, 20 feet high; heat; crackling; kids and adults yelling—it lasts for roughly 2 minutes. We'll do this until the neighbors call the cops on us. New Year's Day: Our 5th annual First Day Hike, this time Mt. Tom in Holyoke, MA. Not quite to the peak of Mt. Tom, but Whiting Peak, 1000 feet. My cameraphone does no justice to the depth and height of this trail. Before the hike, I reflected a bit and wondered why this was only our 5th year doing First Day Hikes, why I hadn't been doing something like this before. For most of my adult life, I've spent New Year's Day too hungover to do much of anything. I did my first (and only) polar plunge on New Year's Day 2016, while hungover. That same year, I moved from RI to MA, which is where I was introduced to the idea of a First Day Hike. 2017: That organized First Day Hike which introduced me to the concept—hosted by the "state park" that