ideas   the tilt  

Some of the loose events that we try to make time for, consists mainly of going out to dinner at least some time near our birthdays and anniversary.  On the other hand, we have been kindly taken in by my sister's family for most of the Thanksgivings and Christmases of late, so I guess that is kindof a tradition for us now as well.

So we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my sister's family.  And while I love them all, my immune system just isn't used to the petri-dish of public life, and almost every time I spend a few days with them I end up with a cold or flu afterwards.  So I spent the better part of the next several days resting on the couch and developing a terrible bronchial cough.  Of course that didn't stop me from having a little fun on Saturday... we tied a rope to our car and took turns slowly dragging each other around the neighborhood on a sled.  Then Sunday we went into town for a little after-Christmas-shopping and lunch at my favorite brazilian steak-house for a late birthday.  (Also becoming somewhat of a tradition for us since the restaurant sends me a discount each year for my birthday, and what could be better than all-you-can-eat meat delivered right to your table?)

The one very firm tradition hubby and I have developed over the years though, is simple, involves food (don't all good traditions?), and happens as close to New Year's Day as possible.

Yep.  Each year on New Year's Day, we go to a quiet little chinese restaurant and spend some time going over the last year... what our goals were, our successes, our failures, what went right and wrong, and set forth our New Year's resolutions for the coming year.

When this started many years ago, the lists were more of long "to-do" lists of things we needed to get done in the coming year.  Over the years though, they first turned into shorter lists of the more important projects, and then into even shorter lists of how we wanted to improve ourselves and our lives.  And they further progressed from specific goals like "loosing weight at a rate of X pounds per month" to more broad goals like "feeling better" with bullet point list of the things that could help us to achieve the goals... or at least make progress on them.

And slowly, with few successes and too many failures, the lists got more and more realistically short.  Last years goals were in general dropped down to "Do Better".  And while my application of "Do Better" was directed at the simple to-do cleaning list on my fridge that lists what small portion of the house to put effort into each day, sometimes the simple task of spending a few minutes cleaning is just that... simple, and sometimes it seems the closest thing to impossible.  I am ashamed to say that many of the little to-do dots never got filled in towards the end of last year.

Sadly, for both hubby and I, this year in review was generally stamped with "FAIL".  Our chinese dinner was marked with good food, but much less discussion than in years past.  There is just less to talk about when the very short goal of "Do Better" wasn't achieved.

This year I think the general goal has been shortened even more... just to "Do".  But if the massive force of will that it has taken to get off the couch and get the first few days of dots filled in on my to-do are any indication, I think next year we will skip the dinner and put this tradition away.   

In the mean time I will try my best, or try to try my best, at ignoring what feels like the hundredth bout of deep chest bronchitis, and fill in my to-do... one... dot... at... a... time.

Because "Do" is probably about as short as it gets.