The New Year’s Eve ritual
I wanted to give all of us plenty of notice, so here it is:
Years ago my buddy Pete told me about his Korean mother-in-law’s tradition for New Year’s Eve. The theory is you want to go into the new year the way you want the rest of the year to go. If you want abundance, ease, order, fun, etc., these are among the things you do:
–Fill your car with gas.
–Fill your cupboards and refrigerator with groceries.
–Put money in your pocket.
–Catch up on your bookkeeping/bills.
–Clean your house.
–Catch up on your laundry and ironing.
–Clear out any old clothes in your closet that don’t fit or that you don’t absolutely love anymore, and give them away so someone else can start enjoying them right now.
–Catch up on your beauty routine (color your hair, do your nails, pluck your eyebrows, etc.) (That’s for you in particular, Patrick.)
–Eat the kind of food that you love.
–Pick an event for yourself on New Year’s Eve that symbolizes the kinds of things you want to do more of in the coming year. For my husband and me, it’s always getting outside more, so we go camping on New Year’s Eve.
Those are just a few suggestions, but you get the picture.
Maybe it sounds silly, but I swear doing these kinds of activities to start a new year fresh feels SO GOOD. I really look forward to it every year. I’m all about the fresh start.
Off to go do some cleaning now. This is going to be a bigger project than just one day!
Hope you all are having some lovely holidays.
December 28th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
If I had a Korean mother-in-law, I would totally do all that stuff!
As you know, I still follow the Mayan calendar. It’s a better calendar since it has both a beginning and an end.
December 28th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I think this is great!
As for resolutions, I try to stay away from them because you usually never follow through with them. The method above is a way to start they year off right so you can do ANYTHING you want when you want it and not have a time limit!
Since January 1st is my birthday, I always start the new year fresh. I get new clothes, do something nice on the 1st, and just start the year off right
Happy New Year to everyone!
December 28th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Oh that’s a great tradition! I think I’ll try it this year! Thanks!
December 29th, 2008 at 12:58 am
my new year tradition is staying up with my family then having some sparkling cider, and then i usually watch TV, but that sounds… interesting. I cant really do the paying the bills one since i’m still too young for bills.
oh and Happy New Year everyone
December 29th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Carli, want to trade places? I was too young for bills once; I liked that a lot.
Patrick, the Mayan calendar has already ended because of the differences in the way that time was calculated when they wrote it. Come on over to the Julian calendar with the rest of the world…we have cookies!
Robin, I love this idea. I’m going to try it. I actually even started cleaning last night, even though it was impossibly late when I got home. It felt AWESOME. Next up (after I work today and finish the cleaning of the rest of the house) is the closet. Yikes…but the clothing-for-cancer-patients center will be glad to have those clothes, I think.
December 29th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Elizabeth,
Please. Your Western calendar is primitive and linear and the cookies are a lie.
http://www.2012endofdays.org/Mayan/Mayan-Calendar.php
December 29th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Patrick,
I feel insulted. The cookies are NOT a lie. I know this, because I make them myself. From scratch. And if I could figure out the recipe, I’d even make them vegan for myself and Robin.
December 29th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I like this, except for that which I cannot control, like paying all my bills and such. (Maybe life is trying to teach me to accept the best I can do at any given time?)
But I think I will do my best to have a clean house in the next three days.
It could happen.
December 29th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I came this *squinches fingers together* close to writing the cookies are vegan rather than a lie.
My christmas present tells me I have too much visceral fat for cookies anyway.
December 29th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Having just weighed myself after a month of unbridled eating, I can confirm that vegan cookies are not a lie.
December 29th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
BFF, I’m home hacking and getting over some weird hybridized sinus-flu thing, and I wish you the very happiest new year! I am going out RIGHT NOW to buy a new pair of running shoes, and even though there’s too much gak in my lungs (and fat on my bum) to run really hard, I love the idea of starting out the way I intend to go on.
Carpé jugulum, baby.
December 29th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
TadMack, ixnay on the icksay! No! Yes to the running shoes, though.
And “jugulum”??
Heather, the “pay bills” part is really about catching up on the bookkeeping. But maybe you’re not as much of a slacker on that as I am.
Patrick, your visceral fat is meaningless. Carry on as you are.
Elizabeth, thanks for the offer for vegan cookies! And don’t let me interfere with your bickering with Patrick–I’m enjoying it quite a bit.
Carli, enjoy your late night and sparkling cider. Sounds like a nice, calm start to the year.
Dylan, good luck and let me know how you like the ritual!
Shai, can’t believe you were born on the 1st! How cool! So we’re all really technically celebrating your birthday? I’m up for that.
December 30th, 2008 at 6:42 am
My husband and I are looking forward to a night with our group of close friends. The little ones will stay home with a sitter (a wonderful young college student who was kind to give up her New Year’s Eve for us!) while we enjoy a murder mystery party with our friends. It’ll be a night on a “cruise ship” in the 1920s. Flapper dress, here I come! (:
Happy New Year to all!
December 30th, 2008 at 6:49 am
Robin–with your permission, then:
Patrick, As sure as I can make vegan cookies, I can make them low-fat, but then, what’s the point of low-fat cookies? Seriously. And the Western calendar is circular, not linear. And as time is set by humans, what does it matter anyway? Come on over. I’ll give you a cookie as a free sample…if that doesn’t convert you from calculating your time in a series of strings, I don’t know what will.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I’m also not going to worry about ANYTHING on New Year’s Eve. I’m cleaning today (considering making a trip to the laundromat) but I will be writing/working tomorrow, because that is what I want to be doing in 2009.
December 30th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Clean my house?
I am so screwed for the new year.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
JUGULUM. As in, jugular vein.
Seize life by the throat…
Happy New Year! (she said, worrying her friend slightly)
December 30th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Well,we do have a New Year’s money ritual in our house(we place dollar bills under the doormat before midnight and then slide them back in,so that cash will want to flow into our household)so we’ll be doing that.
I did change my bed linens to freshen them up for the New Year and used my Christmas set of jasmine tuberose lotion and bath gel for a fresh,clean scent. My big celebration event tomorrow night will be to watch Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog on DVD(treated myself to One Day shipping,so I should have it on time). Am dying to check out “Commentary:The Musical”!
Happy New Year to one and all!
December 30th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
So far, new haircuts for the family. Tomorrow is a major cleaning and cooking day.
Have a wonderful New Year!
December 31st, 2008 at 9:47 am
TadMack, you do sort of worry me, but then all you Latin-speakers are fierce.
Lady T, I forgot about that money tradition of yours–so sweet! Enjoy your night with NPH and Nathan Fillion. Yum.
Vivian, enjoy your cooking, cleaning, and freshly-shorn hair. Sounds like a great start.
Mother Reader, you only have to clean your house if you desperately care about having a clean house all next year. If you saw my office right now, you’d know I’ve chosen other things to focus on. If it means I won’t be able to see the wood on my desk for another 12 months, so be it. I’m going camping. Hope you find something fun to do today, because laughter and fun are the main things to want to carry into the new year!
Elizabeth, keep trying. Your arguments are sound.
Kelley, enjoy your murder mystery party! Talk about a fun start to the year! Woot!
December 31st, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Alas, I am doomed to a year of mess, unfinished projects, and loud children, because that is how I am ringing in the new year. I have been more interested in finishing the year off by reading books, instead of cleaning. Which is actually all your fault, Robin. I was inspired by your book challenge (last year) to keep track of all the books I read in 2008. I have been challenging myself to add a few more titles to my list before the year officially ends. Time to start my 2009 bookshelf…
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!
December 31st, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Elizabeth, As you know, cookies first came about as a sacrifice to the gods of joy in the form of flour, sugar, and eggs. To make them vegan is sacrilege.
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:05 pm
patrick,
i love it when you are right–and you are soooo right on this. elizabeth, do not anger the gods, please.
ps took robin’s korean mother-in-law advice,and based upon a magical night of fun and friendship i am going to have an awesome new year–hope everyone else does as well.
January 5th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Patrick and Annette: I know the origin of the cookie. I also know that the One True Goddess Brande is vegan. Therefore, the way to anger her is to offer her a sacrifice of butter and eggs. I plead with you not to make me anger the Goddess. I segregate her cookies from the real cookies which I would give you if you were to give up your mass of strings for the modern calendar. Besides which, need I point out that the Mayans were also Western and therefore, when you insult the so-called “Western Calendar,” you also insult yourselves and your archaic measure of time?
January 5th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Elizabeth, you’re hilarious.
Michelle, come see my cluttered, pile-covered office! This is real life, babe. We do the best we can and have to put up with the mess of the rest of it! Anyway, at least you and I (and I’m sure most of us) are reading a lot, so I’m glad you made that a priority last year instead of finishing cleaning projects. Reading is always a better use of time.
Patrick, stop taunting Elizabeth. And me. Vegan cookies are delish. So shut up.
Annette, happy new year to you, too! Glad to know your year started out the way you wanted. Mine did, too.
So listen, gang, I’m on a big hairy deadline right now and have to get copy edits into the mail in just a few days. Signing off for now!
January 5th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
FYI - I’ve nominated you to be a participant on annette’s new show on TLC — What Not To Pile On Your Desk.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
patrick,
i’m late in checking in, but that is a reality show, that would ROCK. i would LOVE to start with robin’s desk.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Right now my desk makes me want to cry. Please let us not speak of it.
I WILL see bare space on it again one day. Just not today.