There was a message on the wife's phone when we left Sherlock Holmes, but she forgot to listen to it until we were sitting at the table, dining on the traditional fresh-boiled shrimp, awaiting the arrival of the New Year less than an hour away.

It was from the daughter-in-law.

The corgi's muzzle had swollen up from the bite a heeler put on it (removing a corgi tooth in the process) during the Christmas weekend (we humans weren't the only ones stressed), so she drove the corgi over to our local vet. Who was not greatly concerned, expecting this kind of reaction, and simply maintained the antibiotics for a little longer.

This left our new daughter 90-some wintry miles from her husband in University Town on New Year's Eve, which wasn't a great disappointment since he was working most of the night. But upon arriving here, she discovered...

Her best friend and maid of honor was in University Town, not here. Youngest son and his best friend, also some of her buddys, were also spending the night in University Town, instead of here (although not celebrating... just sleeping in preparation of a pre-dawn drive to Denver International). And her second-best friend was... you guessed it, out of town. In University Town.

Everyone she would want to go out celebrating with is in her town 90-some miserable, icy miles away.

And she is here.

So, our new daughter was spending New Year's Eve watching the Twilight Zone marathon on SyFy alone while her mother slept and brother gamed online.

Yeah, we invited her over for shrimp.

The new year was almost three hours old before she and the corgi headed back to town.

Have I mentioned how much we love our new daughter-in-law?