Christmas in January

As I've said before, I'm not big on dates. Now, don't interpret this to mean that I don't care if you forget my birthday. I do care. A lot. I love birthdays and firmly believe that they should be celebrated on the actual day of your birth. But when it comes to more minor holidays, I'm fine with celebrating whenever the mood strikes, or (more accurately) whenever the price is right. That's why our home is currently adorned with a lovely live poinsettia plant and a gingerbread house, 2 traditionally Christmas-related items that were conspicuously absent from our home during the entire month of December. When visiting a botanical garden (the indoor portion--I don't live in the tropics where January is ripe with flora) on Friday we were given a poinsettia upon exiting. For free. The best part is, we didn't even have to pay to get into the garden. So we commemorated our splendid free outing that afternoon with a free plant. I don't care that the rest of the christian world is tossing out their poinsettias now that Christmas is over. I'm proudly displaying my new plant.
Whilst (don't you sometimes wish you were British so that you could get away with writing uniquely British words and phrases? Since Mary Poppins is British, I'll take that liberty on this blog every now and then) grocery shopping at Trader Joe's on Saturday, I noticed they had gingerbread house kits on sale for $2.99. You couldn't make one from scratch for that amount. I know I've sworn off unnecessary nonconsumable purchases, even if they are a great deal, but I couldn't resist this one, for a few reasons:
a. it's really consumable. No, I'm not going to eat it, but in theory one could. If there were some kind of natural disaster in my area and we couldn't get out of our home to get food, this gingerbread house could sustain life.
b. it provided a great excuse for us to use up some leftover Halloween candy. Yes, you read that right. We still have Halloween candy lying around.
c. it entertained us all for a good hour or so. So when you break it down, $2.99/hour for entertainment for 4 people is not bad at all.
d. over the Christmas holiday, Una saw several gingerbread houses at homes we visited and was quite taken by them.
Monday was the day we worked on it and in the last 24 hours, only 2 pieces of candy have been picked off (for the record, not by me). Not bad, if I do say so myself.
Gingerbread houses in January? Why not? Una doesn't care when we did it, only that we got to do it. Let me tell you, I'm sure glad we performed that winter time ritual for $2.99 instead of $14.99.
Likewise, I'm thrilled that we waited until January to get a free poinsettia instead of paying for one just a few weeks earlier.
Suddenly I'm wishing that like David Sedaris's family, I were Greek Orthodox, so that I could celebrate several religious holidays a week or so after the rest of the world, thereby benefiting from the tremendous markdowns that occur the day after every major holiday.

I Woke Up, I Was So Glad

The title for this post is a line from Best In Show. A terrific flick. But Waiting For Guffman is the best of the Christopher Guest shows.
This morning when I woke up I had 2 things to be glad about:
1. Duet actually slept in until 7:00am. It's been months since she's slept in this late.
2. As soon as we came downstairs this morning, Duet requested that we watch ABBA. As in the ABBA music videos we own and love. I was so proud.
There's something I've noticed about the second kid. At least our second kid. She's not as sheltered as her older sister was/is. You may remember that I'm not a big fan of TV. We only have an antenna and an old school TV set. Once the digital revolution hits in Feb, I'm not sure we'll be able to get any sort of signal at all, even with our nifty converter box. I'm not shedding any tears over the prospect of no TV. That suits me just fine, since it's simply not a big part of our lives.
Una, as the oldest child, didn't watch any DVDs until she was well over 2. She still has yet to see a full length movie--including the Disney animated movies. In fact, her real name is the same as a character in one of the famous Disney movies (no, it's not Ariel), and quite often people will ask her about the show and she has no idea what they're talking about.
Duet's a different story. Since Una was in a big Dora the Explorer phase for a couple of years, Duet was introduced to our TV set much earlier than Una was. And we've got a potential addict on our hands, folks. Every morning without fail the first thing Duet says when we come down the stairs is "Boots show" (as in Dora and Boots, her monkey amigo). As Una is outgrowing Dora and her bilingual crew, Duet is swiftly taking her place as the biggest Dora fan in the house. I don't like her watching a show every day so I usually try to engage her in another activity. Some mornings she throws a fit if she doesn't get her Boots show right away and, like the good parent that I am, I give in to her fit because hey, it's usually 6am and I don't want her waking the rest of the house.
This morning when "ABBA" emerged from her lips, you know I walked straight over the the TV and inserted the ABBA DVD. There was no need for a diversion. Why wouldn't I want her dancing and singing along to our favorite tunes?
Although she parted ways with Dora this morning, Dora's espanol influence still has a stronghold on our Duet. Duet's favorite ABBA song is of course, "Chiquitita," or "Tita" in her words. That is not to be confused with "Tito," her name for Tico the squirrel, also of Dora fame. I, however, wish that when saying "Tito" she was actually referring to Tito Jackson, from the Jackson 5. Maybe I'll have to get her interested in them. It's time to start teaching her her letters after all, and that ABC song just might do the trick.

A Riddle

What do the following things have in common?

April 9, 2008
April 10, 2009
a school abacus
a centenarian
a football field
one meter
Benjamin Franklin's bill
Mary Poppins's blog posts





The number 100

April 9, 2008 (100th day of the year)
April 10, 2009 (100th day of the year)
a school abacus (100 beads)
a centenarian (100 years)
a football field (100 yards)
one meter (100 centimeters)
Benjamin Franklin's bill (100 dollar bill)
Mary Poppins's blog posts (this is my 100th post)

Tonight I'm Gonna Party Like It's 1999

So I promised I'd write more today about my upcoming goals. Tis the season, after all what with New Year's Day and its obligatory resolutions staring me in the face. Out with the old, in with the new, and all that.
This may seem anticlimactic, but right now my plan is to pick up where I left off. I sort of dropped the ball on most of my vices over the last few weeks, but now that the holidays are over and I'm back in my home, I'm getting back in the saddle. Workouts, core program, decluttering, cutting back on sweets--here I come. I am happy to report that the moratorium on unnecessary spending never ceased. That was one habit that I stuck with over the holidays and we're all reaping the benefits. Smaller credit card bills, fewer things coming into my home adding to the clutter, less reliance on store-bought goods and activities--these are some of the positive changes I've noticed since beginning to cut back on spending back in October. It's been so long now that it's practically second nature to walk past the clearance bins and not peruse them in search of great deals.
2008 has been productive for me, in many ways because of the motivation I get from the blog. For one thing, I don't think I would be working out consistently, if it weren't for the obligation I feel to report on my progress. So I'm hoping that in 2009 I'll continue to become Mary Poppins step by step. But if I had to choose one overarching goal for 2009, it would have to do with simplicity. I want to simplify all areas of my life. If there's a simpler way to do something, I will do it. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on that in the future.
So with that, I'm off to continue my New Year's Eve partying. Truthfully, Bert and I are known for having abysmal New Year's Eve celebrations. They started the New Year's Eve a few weeks before we got married, when we were vacationing with Bert's family. We got stuck at the home of a family friend with Bert's parents and without a car. Someone in our party rented a movie, but by the time they got to the rental place the only thing left was Crocodile Dundee 2 or 3 or 4 (did they even make a 3 or a 4? I can't recall; that's how memorable this movie was. There's a reason why some shows were picked over and left at the store).
Other highlights include:
The year our friends were going to meet us at a resort so we could celebrate together, but they got sick at the last minute and had to cancel;
The year we stayed up watching Ratatouille (note: if you're like me and detest rats, you won't enjoy a movie about animated rats, even if they do live in Paris and make good food);
The year I was hugely pregnant and felt ill, so instead of going out, I spent the night curled up in a giant ball watching TV (that was the year that I discovered the sitcom Arrested Development, which to this day is one of my greatest loves, so I guess that memory wasn't all bad).
I can't blame our crummy New Year's Eve celebrations on Bert. I was having them long before he was in the picture. On New Year's Eve 1998, I offered to babysit my sister's 7 month-old baby so that she and her husband could go out. That was extremely nice of me, if I do say so myself. I remember sitting in her apartment watching the ball drop and listening to Prince's song about 1999 play over, and over, and over, again. 10 years later, now that I've got kids of my own and someone to kiss at midnight, I'm asking "where's my free babysitter?"

Return From Christmas Hiatus

And we're back. We arrived safe and sound. And exhausted. Tomorrow I'm going to post about my plans for the upcoming weeks. But tonight I'm going to get some sleep. Hopefully of the uninterrupted variety. Good night.

Merry Christmas, Darling

Bert and I exchanged Christmas gifts with each other.

Now one of us gets to exchange it at the store.

You know what they say about great minds.

Merry Christmas everyone! May you have better luck giving and getting gifts this year than we had.

You Say Cheap, I Say Green

So on Friday morning before leaving our beloved home, we had an early Christmas celebration with our family. Due to space issues, we weren't able to take all of the girls' presents with us, so we decided to exchange presents on a faux Christmas morning on the 19th. If you'll recall, I'm not that particular about dates, so this plan suited me fine.

In following the compact, we've been trying to avoid making a lot of purchases. With that in mind, Una got an IKEA easel we purchased for $9.99 and Duet got a hand-me-down rocking horse our neighbors gave to us for free when they moved. A second-hand toy, for Christmas? Indeed. But isn't that being a little too frugal? Cheap, even?

Here's what I love about the environmental movement (aside from the saving the earth bit. I totally love the saving the earth bit): no one argues with the idea of going green. Any effort one makes in that direction is accepted, no questions asked.

So when asked why I felt it was acceptable to give my child a second-hand toy for Christmas, I could have just explained about the compact, or simply said, "I'm frugal." I opted for this response instead: "We're going green this year by cutting back on unnecessary consumption. When we buy less, we are responsible for consuming fewer of the earth's resources, thereby reducing our carbon footprint." Note: it's very important that you utilize the phrase "carbon footprint." You always sound knowledgeable when using that phrase.

And suddenly, instead of a cheap mother, I'm an earth-saving heroine. Protecting the planet never felt so good.