New Year's Resolutions

I got to thinking this morning about the whole "New Year's Resolution" thing. Where did it come from? Is it just a fad that caught on because the beginning of a new calendar seems like an appropriate time to begin a new set of goals? So I did a little research (yup, I'm awesome), and found this cute little article. Enjoy.

The History of New Year's Resolutions

How and Why the Tradition of Making Resolutions Began

by Nathan Collier

The history of making New Year’s resolutions dates all the way back to the time of ancient Rome. The Romans are responsible for the majority of the modern calendar and for the tradition of making resolutions on New Years.

Celebrating the new year has been a tradition for thousands of years and is arguably the oldest celebrated holiday. The ancient Babylonians were the first to hold celebrations for the new year over 4000 years ago though they did not begin the tradition of making resolutions on that day.

New Years has not always been celebrated on January 1st and it’s not celebrated on that date everywhere today. The Roman and Gregorian calendars are both solar calendars that hold the new year on January 1st. Lunar calendars such as the Chinese calendar would hold the new year on the first full moon of the year.

The Romans and the Tradition of Resolutions

In the early Roman Empire the new year was celebrated in March. This made sense to the Romans because it marked the beginning of spring and the planting of the first crops.

In 153 BCE Janus, a mythical king of early Rome was placed at the head of the Roman calendar by the Roman Senate. In legend Janus had two faces which he used to look to the future and the past. Since it was believed that Janus could forgive transgressions, many Romans would give gifts and make promises at the beginning of the new calendar year. Their belief was that Janus would see this and then bless their life for the entire year.

Over the next years, each Caesar made his own changes to the calendar. The official date of New Year’s switched from January to March and back again several different times over this time period.

Julius Caesar Solidifies the Calendar

In 46 BCE Julius Caesar changed the Roman calendar in order to make it align more evenly with the seasons and to make further changes impossible. Caesar made January 1st the official beginning of the next year. A legend began that on the last day of December at midnight Janus would see the past year and the next year at the same time. Romans began making promises to Janus on the last day of December in the hopes that he would see their sincerity and help them attain their goals.

The legend continued on after the Roman Empire was dissolved. During the Middle Ages Christian powers attempted to remove the Roman traditions from the calendar. Christians proclaimed the new year to be December 25th in order to celebrate it with the birth of Christ.

In the sixteenth century, Pope Gregory XIII revised the Julian calendar and new years was once again celebrated on January 1st. The tradition of making resolutions once again surfaced while the mythical element of Janus was removed.

Santa is a blogger

I couldn't believe it when I woke up Christmas morning to find out that Santa is a blogger, and apparently follows Moesying Through Life! He wants to make sure that my journey of 101 Things in 1001 Days is a success, so he planned my Christmas presents accordingly. Thanks, Santa!

Santa especially wants to make sure that I get all my kitchen "to do's" taken care of, and thus, blessed me with the tools to potentially complete #46, 50, 55, 64, 66, 69, and 74 on my list! My new creme brulee ramekins and flavored sugars and cooking torches should be fun to play with (watch out!)! The french onion soup crocks will be instrumental in perfecting my dad's killer french onion soup recipe. And the DOUBLE (yes, I said double) crock pot I got should help me keep dinners cooking, and maybe even come up with my own special dish. My friends will be happily tanked with the cocktail guide that I got to help me learn to mix drinks. And, in case I run out of things to play with in the kitchen, I can go spend a weekend taking cooking classes with my dad! (Hey look, there's #2 on the list!)

It occurred to me, as I was beaming with delight over all these fun toys (I mean, come on, cooking torches and DOUBLE crock pots???) that Santa also thinks I am a fatty. I am ok with this, I think.

I also had to smile when Judaism for Dummies fell into my lap (#67 on the 101 list, #1 on the Christmas Irony list), both of my brothers started talking about how they want to go skydiving (#86), my older brother gave me a book he was recommending (#8) and my mom got a phone call about a potential location for the next girl's weekend (#1!).

So, thank you, Santa, for following my blog. I hope you like what you see here, and I will keep you posted on my progress with the list.

Now it is New Year's resolution time. Resolution #1: Get 50% of this list done.

I Believe in Santa Claus

I believe in Santa Claus. It's a faith that I learned from my parents as a baby that I have kept with me my entire life in one form or another. While I no longer believe that there is a fat man in a red coat who delivers gifts to all the good children of the world in one night with the help of his magical, flying reindeer, I do believe in the spirit of Santa Claus.

It has nothing to do with naughty or nice, with presents or stockings, with Christian faith or childhood fairy tales. But I do believe that there is something in the air around Christmas time that just gives people a sense of warmth and kindness towards the people in their life. Friends, family, colleagues. Maybe not so much with holiday shoppers or your run-of-the-mill hoodlums, but luckily, the people I care about have a little Christmas spirit in them too. A little Santa.

Sometimes it is just baking cookies for friends, or doing an extra favor for a co-worker, or putting up holiday decorations with your mom, or sitting by the fire that your dad built to fight the cold winter air. It can be an unexpected hug or a warm greeting. There is something that happens this time of year that I can't explain; it gets inside you and makes you want to share it. Giving that dollar to the salvation army guy ringing the bell on the corner, holding the door for the woman with the shopping bags, chasing after the kid who dropped his mitten in the snow to return it to him, or even just looking out the window to watch the snow fall and being completely full and content with that seemingly boring act.

So yes, I do believe in Santa Claus. I always have. It's not about the man, not about the gifts, not even about the bedtime stories. It is whatever is in the air during the holidays. I've never needed "proof" that there was really a Santa Claus, but it is nice to think that sometimes, when you least expect it, he can still give you a little wink.

What qualifies a good day:

1. Woke up early for no reason, but without feeling tired once I was up.
2. Andy spoiled me by not only buying breakfast, but going out to get it so I could stay inside, out of the snow, and in my pajamas.
3. Playtime! Playtime! Playtime!
4. Got two things done off my list (watched the 1938 A Christmas Carol and got my iTunes all organized and cleaned up). Plus, got all the software I needed for my webcam set up so that I can video skype. (Not really on the list, but it helps out with one of my items).
5. Did it all without ever having to get out of yoga pants.

That would be a good day.

Shock and Awwww

It is just a few days from Christmas. As I was walking to work recently, there was the cutest little boy you're ever seen in your life walking toward me with his mom. The boy was probably about 4 years old and was not so much walking as he was jumping alongside his mother as she walked, all the while exclaiming (with a cute little boy speech impediment) "Seven more days 'til Christmas! Seven more days 'til Christmas!"

AWWWWWWWW!

And as I continued on my journey to work, feeling all warm and fuzzy by the image of the cutest little boy doing the cutest little thing he could possibly be doing, the shock set in.

Really? We're that close to Christmas? Uh oh.

Today's miserable upset...

Which is more important? Your friends or career? And what if you have to choose, with no option to combine them?

What if choosing "friends" for one day could be detrimental to your work? Will your friends understand?

What if you can't justify missing out on your friends for work? Is it worth the risk?

How do you know?

Festival Time!

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah! To all those celebrating, I wish you eight days and nights of a Happy Hanukkah!

One of the items on my list is to learn more about the Jewish traditions. I know the basics about many of them: "this is the one with the menorah", "this is the one with the seder", "this is the one with the latkes", "this is the one with the costumes", "this is the New Year", "this is the one where we laugh at Andy as he reads the four questions because he is always the youngest one in the room and then goes to find the afikomen". And I know the basic backgrounds of the major holidays too: the eight days the candle burned when there was only enough oil for one, the celebration of the Israelite's escape from slavery (including the unlevened bread for their hasty escape and other the other symbollic foods of the pesach seder and the answers to those famous four questions), etc.

For an Irish Catholic, I think I have a decent understanding of the biggies. But not great. Not as much as I'd like. There are still many aspects of the holidays (and traditions) I don't understand.

Recently, my beautiful sister-in-law (yay) posted on her own blog a little article about Hanukkah that I really enjoyed. It was some nice, light reading stuff, but it went along nicely with some of the other articles I have read recently. “Hanukkah: A Guide for the Perplexed” is a link that she included as additional reading from her own blog, and I enjoyed clicking through it. I feel like this might be a site as we approach other holidays as well, just so that I can take a look. This one, although an older article, was informative as well: from the Inside Israel website.

With that, I wish you...

It's that time of year

About this time of year, I think most people get into a little bit of holiday stress mode, trying to find the perfect gifts for their loved ones. Even the people that really love holiday shopping probably feel a little pressure when they have found the perfect gifts for Billy, Sally, and Sue, but little Johnny still has nothing. Of course, lists make things a little easier for everyone and take away the wonder of "will they like this?". But then there are no surprises.

I like coming up with ideas that people didn't ask for, but I think they might like. It's hard. And it doesn't come easily. And I am pretty sure I have bought a few things that have never made it out of the box. But I think some of them are gems also! But there's the pressure....

So which is better? Buying something unexpected and having your loved ones be truly surprised when they open their gifts, or buying what a person wants, and knowing you made them happy with something they can actually use?

And what's on your holiday wish list this year?

Pep Talk

Is it wrong that I want to add peppermint to everything around this time of year?

Peppermint Mocha coffee? Yes please.
Peppermint Brownies? I'll take two.
Peppermint Candles? Light 'em up.
Peppermint Bark? Holy delicious, batman.
Peppermint Chicken? Well, you can try it first. But let me know how it goes.

Finally feeling Christmasy! Maybe I should do a little shopping?

Counting the days in a different way

In addition to my 101 days countdown (983 left!), I also have another little countdown going.

As of today, there are 199 days until my wedding - I have gotten into the 100's! That's just over 6-months of time until I am walking down the aisle of the biggest party I have ever thrown. I've been engaged for nine months now (whoa, really?) and it wasn't until about two days ago that I had any feeling of "uh oh, better start getting to work on this thing".

I don't have a dress. I don't have bridesmaid dresses picked out. I haven't decided on a florist. I haven't arranged a tasting. I haven't ordered invitations.... the list goes on and on. I don't know if it was a moment of reality setting in that suddenly made me nervously start looking into things, or what, but there is a lot to do! There is no question in my mind that it will all get done. Actually, I am not even worried about it, though I do get the "going crazy with wedding plans yet?" question every time I turn around.

In case you were wondering if I was Bridezilla yet also, the answer is "No. It's under control. I actually think I am in good shape, as long as I start making decisions."

Perhaps this all came about because I officially set the date for my huge fundraising Gala at work yesterday. April 19... exactly 2 months before my own big day. The bright side: I won't have to worry about the Gala for a whole 2 months leading up to my wedding and can just concentrate on the nuptials. The downside: I might be worrying about wedding stuff now because I know I am not too far away from doing nothing but non-stop Gala work. Hmm... I may have just found my source of feeling rushed.