Christmas is for fam­i­lies, but New Year’s is for friends. I could­n’t decide between Pat and Jen’s or Aaron and Karen’s this year, so I went to both.

Pat and Jen had me over for din­ner first. I met Sophia for the first time, which was a good way to put a face to the per­son who Jen talks about all the time. It was a great change to be hang­ing out with peo­ple who did­n’t mind play­ing con­sole and hand-held games at a New Year’s par­ty. Usually I’m the geek who wants to play games, and most peo­ple are unin­ter­est­ed.

I head­ed to Aaron and Karen’s after a cou­ple hours. They’re only a block away from each oth­er, so it was an easy walk. It was the usu­al Trivial Pursuit (guys won), pok­er, and gen­er­al row­di­ness. A few peo­ple crashed so they could drink, and the par­ty went into the next day with some ear­ly morn­ing Wii.

Mel gave me an invi­ta­tion card to their wed­ding in March, and Rob extend­ed the annu­al Super Bowl par­ty invi­ta­tion. It was a nice ges­ture, because I don’t know Rob and Mel as much as I’d like. I think I’m giv­en that respect by asso­ci­a­tion with Aaron. I hope Rob knows that it goes both ways; a broth­er of Aaron’s is a broth­er of mine.

When I’m host­ing a par­ty, I can see Pat study­ing the oth­er guests. It’s in his nature to be aware of his sur­round­ings, and he always tells me that there are inter­est­ing char­ac­ters. This time it was my turn to observe, and there were plen­ty of char­ac­ters at both places.

I sug­gest­ed that both cou­ples com­bine par­ties for next year, but I’m not sure if the peo­ple would mix.

I also had a chance to try the Wii. Admittedly, the inno­va­tion impressed me. Gameplay can be fun for casu­al and sea­soned gamers alike.

And peo­ple have the fun­ni­est faces when they’re swing­ing that con­troller around.