In my times past, New Year’s Eve has typically been an un-favorite. These days I consider myself as a positive person. But I recall plenty of past New Years that I faced with trepidation and pessimism. I can’t say exactly why. But I know that I seldom looked forward to that end-of-December midnight.

Let’s just settle the blame on The Anticipation of January and move on.

It’s different tonight, as 2019 trickles out. I like 2020 already. Something about that number—2020—just seems classy and good-natured. The number itself implies clear eyesight. It even teases at good foresight.

It’s amusing, now, to recall the New Year’s drama of twenty years ago—the changeover from 1999 to 2000.

“Y2K” (Year 2000) was an ominous futuristic forecast that people stewed over for months. Chicken Little-like rumors circulated everywhere. The young digital age had taken firm root in mainstream America, and every 1999 industry depended on computers.

But could computer capacity handle the transition of the embedded 1990s dates to the untried 2000 date? Or would the sky fall?

Not being attached to computers myself, in those days, I didn’t know. I didn’t much care, either. Truth is, I didn’t understand what all the frenzy was about.

My 1999 circumstances were those of a stay-at-home mom with a range of active and imaginative kids. Untroubled about Y2K, I based our New Year’s observance on something way more solid and reliable than computers: M&Ms.

I planned ahead and procured my giant bags of M&Ms at Sam’s Club (well before the threatened computer crash). I smuggled them into the house and managed to keep even myself from busting into my stash.

On December 31^st, behind locked doors, I sat on my bed and counted M&Ms into a jumbo glass serving bowl.

2000 M&Ms. What a gorgeous sight! I covered the bowl with clear wrap and affixed a label:

DO NOT OPEN UNTIL MIDNIGHT!

Our family festivities included the usual pizza and root beer and games and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Midnight arrived right on time, and Year 2000 with it. The kids ran outside to make their biggest noise, then raced back in to liberate the M&Ms. We played and partied for a while, then wound down to a late/early 2000 bedtime.

No computers were harmed in the process.

Y2K fell into the follies of the past. No one, as far as I know, suffered any of the computer failure and fallout that people had dreaded.

We even had leftover M&Ms!

In hindsight, I discerned a symbolic aspect of my bowl of candy. In Roman numerals, the number 1000 is represented by “M.” Thus, 2000 would be written as “MM.”

It seems that my 2000 M&Ms were right on the pecuniam.

2020 is just about here, now. My kids are all grown, and even some grandkids, nearly. I’ve grown as well, in some useful capacities . . . like faith and optimism. I can welcome 2020 with good will.

And I do. Happy New Year!