At one time I used to make random New Year predictions. Not resolutions, but predictions.
About an hour before midnight on January we’d write down what we predicted would happen in the next year, then seal it in an envelope. On January 31 of the following year we’d open our envelopes to see if any of what we’d written had happened.
My brother Vlad and I would do this. For a few years our brother Aaron and his wife Verity would do it.
I don’t know why we stopped. I vaguely recall random life events, disillusions, or maybe we were all just distracted one year and stopped.
The fantastic thing about this tradition is that about 99% of my random predictions would come true. I was far more accurate and far less cryptic that Nostradamus or Edgar Cayce, or others through the years who used this so called skill, or con, as a way to bring attention to themselves in sensational ways.
Anything we wrote down had to be random. We wrote about relationships that did not exist. We wrote about relationships that might not exist by the end of the year. We wrote about fantastical World Events, politics, the economy, the weather, and anything weird that came out of our imaginations. Much of it was in tinfoil hat territory.
A few friends wanted to know if I’d written anything about them. I did, but I didn’t tell them. Nobody knew what we wrote but Val, Aaron, Verity, or I. We never told anyone or spoke of it. Often we wouldn’t even share it with others, even if something we predicted did happen.
Then we stopped.
I thought about doing it this year, but I just haven’t had the desire to do so. It was a different time and place in my life.
It is sort of like a friend who always asks me if I am going to put up lavish and complicated Christmas decorations that are now stored in my attic – decorations I haven’t put up in ten years. Or like someone who keeps asking me if I’ve heard from old boyfriends, or past friends I no longer see, or care to see.
But, even if I’m no longer doing this game, give it a try. It is great fun.
Happy New Year for 2024.
~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman
Vampire Maman 
It’s odd how we sometimes just ‘slip’ out of old traditions and habits. It happens with many things. I remember things from earlier years, when I was younger and traveling. It was tradition for me to always do two things: by a set of undergarments and go and have breakfast in a restaurant. And at one point, suddenly, I decided I had enough underwear and that kind of breakfast that I like gives me digestive issues. Hmmm… what do we think about that?