Every New Year's Eve, Marian and I prepare what we call an Alphabet Dinner, our quiet alternative to the hype surrounding the last day of the calendar year. We roll that multifaceted die from the game Scattergories and plan a meal and activity that revolves around the letter that appears. Not that we have anything against wearing pointed hats, tooting paper horns, and waving sparklers. We've been known to do that on a random Wednesday. We simply don't like the forced frivolity of New Year's Eve.

Last year we rolled an L. We prepared lasagne, lettuce (a nice salad actually but we simply called it lettuce), and lemon creme sherbet. We drank a Liparita merlot blend, and we watched two movies - Levity and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This year, we rolled an H. I think Marian has settled on halibut and haricot vert as the anchors of the meal. I'm in charge of the wine, the dessert, and the movies. I've got Hotel Rwanda and Harvie Krumpet headed our way from Netflix. I'm looking for a good sauvignon blanc but haven't found one I like that comes from a vineyard that starts with an H. I did find a fun bottle simply called House Wine but too much chardonnay in the blend. I need something light to dance with our halibut.

I love this tradition but think we might have to use a different tool for selecting our letter in future years. The Scattergories die only has 20 sides. The manufacturers of the game left off the non-common letters. No Z. No Q. No U, X, Y, or V. We've got to raise the bar. I'm all about X for 2008. We might end up eating xavier (a cream soup or consomme thickened with arrowroot and garnished with diced chicken), drinking XO cognac, and watching Xena the Warrior Princess reruns, but that's the fun of this. Every year, the ball drops in Times Square and crowd goes wild. It never changes. But our Alphabet Dinners? A unique dining adventure - year after year after year.