Toasts

Since I didn't cover toasting in the last blog which was titled toasting, I thought I should offer some wonderful toasts for a variety of occasions in this blog.

First, there is some toasting etiquette to learn before toasting commences.
1. Toasts are kind words spoken to the guest(s) of honor. To begin, hold your glass in your hand. Once the toast is over, raise your glass signaling that your toast has ended. At this point, all of the guests should sip to the guest(s) of honor.

2. If you are the guest(s) of honor,you do NOT sip after a toast is made to you. This is considered bad etiquette. You may raise your glass and graciously nod your head with appreciation. Drinking after a toast is made in your honor suggests that you are toasting to yourself; a bit narcissistic.

3. If your affair is a small and intimate gathering, then there is no need to stand while delivering your toast. If the affair is larger than those seated at a dinner table, then it is imperative to stand so all may hear the toast.

4. Toasts are not speeches. They are a few short clever lines encapsulating large sentiments.
Now for the Toasts!

New Year's Toasts
In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want. ~ Traditional Irish toast

Stir the eggnog, lift the toddy, Happy New Year, everybody. ~ Phyllis McGinley

Here's to us all, God bless us every one! ~ from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

Here's a toast to the future, A toast to the past, And a toast to our friends, far and near. May the future be pleasant; The past a bright dream; May our friends remain faithful and dear. ~ Anonymous

Cheers to you, Cheers to me, Have a Happy New Year’s Eve!

New Year’s Quotes

For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning. ~ T.S. Eliot

New Year's Day is every man's birthday. ~ Charles Lamb

Each age has deemed the new-born year The fittest time for festal cheer. ~ Sir Walter Scott

Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to. ~ Bill Vaughn

Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. ~ Lord Alfred Tennyson

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. ~ Abraham Lincoln

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

A New Years toast to love and laughter
and happily ever after

A health to you, a wealth to you,
And the best that life can give to you.

Dance as if no one were watching, sing as if no one were listening
and live every day as if it were your last.

Valentine's Day Toasts
Victor Hugo
Life is a flower of which love is the honey.

Oliver Wendell Holmes
Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.

Voltaire
Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.

Fred Jacob
True love is like a fine wine, the older the better.

Emerson
Love is a perfume you cannot pour onto others without getting a few drops on yourself.

Anonymous
Love means nothing in tennis, but it's everything in life.

Francois de la Rochefoucauld
True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.

Ovid
Love is a driver, bitter and fierce if you fight and resist him,
Easy-going enough once you acknowledge his power.

Melanie Clark
You can't put a price tag on love, but you can on all its accessories.

Diane Ackerman
Everyone admits that love is wonderful and necessary, yet no one agrees on just what it is.

F. Sagan
I have loved to the point of madness;
That which is called madness,
That which to me,
Is the only sensible way to love.

William Shakespeare
Did my heart love till now?
Forswear it sight,
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

William Shakespeare
This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents.

Anonymous
What would it be like to swing on a star, or walk on a cloud? Would it be anything like what I feel whenever you are near?

William Shakespeare
Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning bedtime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.

Josh Billings
Marrying for love may be a bit risky, but it is so honest that God can't help but smile on it.

Patch Adams
I love you without knowing how, why, or even from where...

Zelda Fitzgerald
I don't want to live; I want to love first, and live incidentally.

St. Patrick's Day Toasts
May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light, may good luck pursue you each morning and night.

May the roof above us never fall in, and may we friends gathered below never fall out.

A trout in the pot is better than a salmon in the sea.

As you slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point in the wrong direction.

A friend's eye is a good mirror.

May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.

He who loses money, loses much; He who loses a friend, loses more; He who loses faith, loses all.

May the Lord keep you in His hand and never close His fist too tight.

May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, the angels protect you, and heaven accept you.

May the sound of happy music, and the lilt of Irish laughter, fill your heart with gladness, that stays forever after.

May the hinges of our friendship never grow rusty. And our ale never turn musty.

St. Patrick was a gentleman
Who through strategy and stealth
Drove all the snakes from Ireland.
Here’s toasting to his health.
But not too many toastings
Lest you lose yourself and then
Forget the good St. Patrick
And see all those snakes again.

There are many good reasons for drinking,
One has just entered my head.
If a man doesn't drink when he's living,
How in the hell can he drink when he's dead?

Here's to you and yours
And to mine and ours.
And if mine and ours
Ever come across to you and yours,
I hope you and yours will do
As much for mine and ours
As mine and ours have done
For you and yours!

Birthday Toasts
Happy Birthday
Many Happy Returns
Although another year is past
He seems no older than the last.

May this next year bring you the very best of happiness health and fortune.

To the most cleverly guarded secret in this country: your age.