Well, this New Year’s Eve, I managed to get out of the house and celebrate with other adults.  My friends hosted game night, which is always fun.  There were snacks and drinks and cutthroat competitions.  I had my mind blown by two card tricks, which I doubt I will ever figure out.  Apparently, one is based on simple math.  But the other… that one surely has an element of the occult to it.  J

My two-year-old helped me de-ornament the Christmas tree today.  It’s the perfect job for her, since she’s been practicing for a month now, despite my pleas otherwise.  No, actually she was very respectful of “Mama’s tree.”  I took the advice I saw in a “Kid Tips” column in the Telegraph and bought her a small tree of her own.  “Mama tree, baby tree,” she explained to anyone around.  She had her own non-breakable ornaments, some little toys under it, and a tiny stocking taped to the adjacent wall.  It was pretty darn cute.

So here I sit, in my newly non-festive and unexpectedly barren-feeling condo, trying to decide how I want this new year to go.  Yes, there are the standard, universal resolutions: lose weight, save money, stop swearing like a sailor around my toddler (oh, you don’t do that?  Oh.  Um.).  I guess if I was to choose one word to capture the overall essence of my 2008 goals, it would be ‘streamline.’  Streamline the waistline.  Streamline the daily routine.  Streamline and organize the household possessions.  Streamline my journey to the future.

I started doing my annual end-of-the-year purge last week.  I uncluttered the breakfast nook (“Aerosmith’s in my breakfast nook!”  Reference? Anyone?), going through drawers of paper and computer detritus (that last word is for you, Ma).  I cleaned out a kitchen cabinet that was so jam-packed, it no longer closed.  I even installed my new printer/scanner, and made my computer desk actually usable again. 

But as many of you might know, you need to make a mess to clean a mess.  I no longer have my nice, empty dining room table, as it is filled with photos and empty albums that need to be matched up, and random things that don’t really have a home, hence their previous exile to the cabinets and drawers.  I also have a bunch of eBay stuff I’m selling for my parents, as they do a renovation.

Surrounded by my own clutter, I look at it and realize it’s not really junk that needs to go away.  It’s just the products of living.  It’s 3-D manifestations of memories, events, projects and plans.  But I do need to get a hold of it now, before the cumulative effect of decades happens.  I do subscribe to the “the best things in life aren’t things” belief, and it’s something I want to instill in my daughter before peer pressure kicks in.  So far she seems perfectly content with her reasonable amount of (mostly hand-me-down) toys, and the large box her new carseat came in.  So that’s good – although, it’s difficult to cram myself in said box when she says “Mama, box too!”

But then, I’ll be streamlining myself soon, so maybe that won’t be an issue for much longer.