Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night.

Ah, the end of the year. Time to reminisce about the last twelve months and resolve for the next. Except… I got nothing.

2006? It was fine. It was tiring. There wasn’t enough sleep. You know why? Because we had a baby. They’re a lot of work, those babies.

2007? Um, no plans. This Tuesday will look a lot like last Tuesday, which looked fairly akin to the Tuesday before that.

There will be snacks and learning activities and trips to the park. There will be Quiet Time in the new year. (Dear God, please let there be Quiet Time in the new year. Amen.) There will be visits with friends, visits to Dane’s office, visits with grandparents. There will be reading and writing and listening, oh my. But new, for the new year? No idea. No new ventures to plan, no new philosophies to espouse, no news to announce. Just plain old life, continued. And that’s enough.

Tomorrow we’re going to a knights-and-princesses themed birthday party. The invitation says that “all guests are invited to wear their royal attire if it pleases them.” Abigail has set out a princess outfit. I tried to talk her into going as a knight, or even a princess-knight, but so far, no dice. Owen wants to go as a cowboy. Sigh.

Other plans for the weekend involve baby-sitting a toddler, shopping at Costco, and bemoaning the end of Dane’s work-free holiday week. Sounds festive, no?

Also, still sick. I just sent Dane out for a gingerbread latte. I don’t know how that’s going to help, but vitamin C isn’t doing a darned thing for me. Might as well try caffeinated holiday beverages.

Still sick! I’m starting to think we will never get better because we refuse to convalesce and instead spend our days trying to Do Fun Things with the kids, who are not sick. And then we collapse in a phlegmy heap on the floor. But guess what? It’s not much fun to write about being sick. And I imagine it’s even less fun to read about it. So how about I write something else? Okay then.

Thanks to your brilliant suggestions, everyone on our list did in fact receive gifts for Christmas. The new family got bath towels (practical) and assorted soaps and scrubs and whatnot (less practical, more fun). They also got gift cards for takeout dinners, but not from us. Apparently other family members read my blog and borrow ideas from the comments section. The DINKS got a scone pan, scone mix, and scone jam (also known as regular jam). The single guy got gift cards for fast food. You guys are good.

And now my head is spinning and I must close my eyes for at least a three minutes together, so it appears that we’ve reached the end of this post! And it turned out to be about me being sick after all. Drat. Tomorrow, though! Tomorrow I will be healthy! And interesting! Both at once! Or perhaps not. But a girl can hope.

So Dane and I continue to be sick. We (er, he) washed some clothes today finally, so the kids should have clean socks to wear tomorrow. We’ll have to dig them out from the mountain of laundry covering the couch, but at least they’ll smell fresh. Having a congesty illness was, in fact, NOT how I planned to spend my holiday week, as I was just explaining to my sickly dearly beloved:

ME: I thought we would rent movies this week.

HIM: I thought we would feel like human beings this week.

ME: And instead we’re crammed into a corner of the couch, hiding from the clean laundry.

HIM: Like the Millennium Falcon, hiding on the side of the Star Destroyer.

ME: Yeah. Um, honey? If you could, you know, NEVER AGAIN use Star Wars analogies? That would be okay with me.

HIM: What? But life would be so boring! Like… like the first half of Empire Strikes Back. All that time on Degobah…

ME: [pelts him with shoes. or clean laundry.]

Sick. All sick. Abigail and Owen not so much. Dane and I, so much. Audrey, somewhere in between. But none of us are as sick as the friends we visited on Christmas Eve! Or as sick as the relatives we visited on Christmas Day! Which probably means we’re in for worse! Merry Christmas! Sigh. I hope your winter is germ-free.

Dane is sick. Congested, headache-y, cranky-miserable sick. He hasn’t been feeling well for a few days, but he came home from work yesterday completely… sick. And today? Today everyone else is suddenly runny nose-y. Fabulous! It’ll be a snotty Christmas around here. Maybe. I hope not. We’ll pump everybody full of vitamin C and see what happens next.

And now, back to present wrapping.

Today I walked into the living room to discover Abigail crouched on all fours and Owen flinging himself down on her back. “What are you doing?” I asked, my voice tinged with horror. Because the six-year-old felt the need to duck and cover to avoid being injured by the three-year-old! Or so I thought.

“I’m the tree!” Owen cried, falling over on his sister again.

“And—oomph!—I’m the car!” she giggled.

Some of you have been asking (so very kindly!) what’s up with the whole tree situation. Eh, nothing. It’s gone now. There’s a big patch of dirt out front where it used to be. We bought a new minivan. We don’t park it under stuff. The tree-responsible party? Not so much interested in paying for anything. Though our insurance IS rather interested in them paying for stuff, so we’ll see where that goes. I’m over it mostly. Occasionally I still get sick-to-my-stomach anxious imagining the possibility of the kids being in the car when the tree fell. But they weren’t! And now I can mostly remind myself of that and move on quickly. So that’s progress.

Some of you are brilliant shoppers. I, on the other hand, obsessively and indecisively weigh my options for weeks, then spend too much on speedy shipping. But since we’re already in the realm of speedy shipping, I’m turning my list over to you guys. Please have ideas. Even if they’re silly ideas. Because I have no ideas at all. Zip zilch zero. Help me.

Here’s what I’ve got left:

- The couple just starting out. New place, new baby. Probably something practical, right?

- The DINKs. I’m sure they need something, I just can’t think of what. So… something… fun?

- The single college guy. Probably doesn’t need anything for his place, since he doesn’t really have a place. Maybe something useful in the Real World?

- Oh, and tell me what you’re giving grandparents, if there are any in your life. Please.

Feeling inspired? Come on, tell me what to buy!

You already know how playdates turn out at my house. But what do the poor, unsuspecting people coming to hang out with us think? Wonder no more! My friend Heather will tell you all about it. She’s got a new baby and a new blog.

She also seems to think I know what I’m talking about, which may be overly optimistic (see tag line, above). Though when she called me a “pro mommy” I did laugh and admit I’m actually an amateur hack mommy, so at least she’s been warned. Go say hello if you’ve got a minute!