Finis et Principii

Alas, dear ones, January 6th has come. Which means, of course, that with the Feast of the Epiphany today, Christmas must finally come to a close. And you all knew that, of course. None of you have been guilty of cutting the season off early, or (heinous thought indeed!) taking the Christmas tree down on January first! January 1st, my dears, can you imagine? Why, that is only the seventh day of Christmas. Imagine, cutting off the season before the full twelve days have passed! Unthinkable, my dears. But you knew that, didn't you? Yes, of course you did. And that, my lovelies, is why are are such close friends.

Ahem, as I was saying, Christmas is now ended. One always knows, when setting up the tree and stringing the lights and finally turning up the volume on the Christmas tunes you have been listening to since September, that someday it must all come down. And that day, my friends, is today. Or possibly next week. Or sometime in February. Listen, I don't like to push these things, ok? I try to have it all packed away by Valentine's Day but don't rush me!

So, here we are. 2011. And I must say, so far it's been quite pleasant. Some of you may remember last year's resolution post wherein I described the difficulty and inherent silliness of New Year's Resolutions. And if you do remember that, well, you are obviously clogging your brain with irrelevancies and should probably knock it off. And if not, then I have just reminded you. So we are all on the same page. Excellent. Let's begin.

Despite my vague antipathy to year-long resolutions, since discovering "self-parenting" I've developed a good relationship with goals and the setting thereof. This year I've set a goal with Mr. Awesome to spend at least an hour a week doing something active together. Since we set this goal halfway through our weekend hike through the woods, it feels not only doable but natural. And when the weather is good we're a pretty active couple anyway. So this isn't a goal to really start something new so much as to be more consistent about something we already do. Also, instead of a boring (and ultimately useless) "exercise more" goal, this one has the benefit of actually being fun. Hiking, ice-skating, swing-dancing, biking, kayaking, fencing, and all the things we already do for fun, only now we get to pat ourselves on the back for doing it. So basically, our goal is to be proud of ourselves for doing what we already do. Nice.

For myself, I'm sticking with last years "lifely" goal of eating fresh produce, and I even got a shiny new veggie cookbook to help out. (Can you say steamed artichoke? Yes, yes please.) Also I'm going to spend less on books (good luck, now that I have a kindle and the ability to download books anytime, anywhere.). Truly we live in a day of instant temptation and fulfillment. Now if you'll excuse me, there are three new books positively screaming to be read on my Kindle. Adieu, dear ones, may this season-leading-up-to-Christmas be as fulfilling and productive as last year was.