Holidays are a big thing in mom-land. They can really serve to be the measure of your success, in your own eyes I mean. (supermom pressure switch ON.) When they're holidays I like it works well for me. I craft and bake and decorate with the kids and see the fruits of my labor in plates on the counter and taped to the walls all over my house. But when it's a holiday I don't care about... Let's talk about New Years, shall we? This is a holiday that really doesn't mean anything to me. I don't believe in New Year's resolutions because if it were a real resolution you wouldn't have to wait for New Years to make it. I get the 'out with the old, in with the new' but that happens better in spring and, besides, it should be something you do with regularity, not once a year. Really, as I've experienced it, New Years is just a drinking excuse, as is 4th of July.
Then you have kids. And suddenly New Years becomes a Life Lesson and about the Nature of the Universe, the turning of the earth around the sun, the Passage of Time, and feel I guilty as shit if I don't somehow mark the occasion with the kids. I mean, what kind of slacko mom am I if I can't even buy a couple of hats and a noisemaker? I thought about making New Years hats with the kids - that would have gotten me off the crafting hook - but I didn't get it together in time. Since I was near death just before Christmas and we never got to bake christmas cookies, I thought we could make New Year's cookies. But we didn't. We did have a family movie night, all snuggling under the same blanket on the couch, which was nice. Then the next morning, Jan 1st, Mitch wished Frances a Happy New Year, and Frances said she was so glad it was New Year's Day because we get to blow the blowers that night. Luckily the NYC ball drop is on youtube, about 8 minutes long. We hyped it up and after dinner we set the kids up with noisemakers my friend Holly generously passed on from the night before. Two minutes into the video we discovered (from the mouth of Carson Daly) that we were watching New Years 2010. (We also watched London's, and I gotta say - NY has nothin on London 2010. Crazy amazing fireworks! I advise you to check it out here.)
I think next year we're celebrating the turn of the new year on Greenwich meridian time, which is 7pm here in cold Upstate. We can light some candles and say something about the past year and about the one to come. Intention. And I don't even have to set up crafts.
For now we're done with the crunch of holiday pressure. Starting with Frances's september birthday, I'm pretty much on Holiday Duty from mid september through new years. We moms all have a little breather til Valentines. Frances has already decided how we're celebrating that one: she wants to have a Valentine tea party with pink food. Jello is the exciting food of the moment. Sounds good to me!
Then you have kids. And suddenly New Years becomes a Life Lesson and about the Nature of the Universe, the turning of the earth around the sun, the Passage of Time, and feel I guilty as shit if I don't somehow mark the occasion with the kids. I mean, what kind of slacko mom am I if I can't even buy a couple of hats and a noisemaker? I thought about making New Years hats with the kids - that would have gotten me off the crafting hook - but I didn't get it together in time. Since I was near death just before Christmas and we never got to bake christmas cookies, I thought we could make New Year's cookies. But we didn't. We did have a family movie night, all snuggling under the same blanket on the couch, which was nice. Then the next morning, Jan 1st, Mitch wished Frances a Happy New Year, and Frances said she was so glad it was New Year's Day because we get to blow the blowers that night. Luckily the NYC ball drop is on youtube, about 8 minutes long. We hyped it up and after dinner we set the kids up with noisemakers my friend Holly generously passed on from the night before. Two minutes into the video we discovered (from the mouth of Carson Daly) that we were watching New Years 2010. (We also watched London's, and I gotta say - NY has nothin on London 2010. Crazy amazing fireworks! I advise you to check it out here.)
I think next year we're celebrating the turn of the new year on Greenwich meridian time, which is 7pm here in cold Upstate. We can light some candles and say something about the past year and about the one to come. Intention. And I don't even have to set up crafts.
For now we're done with the crunch of holiday pressure. Starting with Frances's september birthday, I'm pretty much on Holiday Duty from mid september through new years. We moms all have a little breather til Valentines. Frances has already decided how we're celebrating that one: she wants to have a Valentine tea party with pink food. Jello is the exciting food of the moment. Sounds good to me!
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