Ah, New Year’s Eve. It really is a time for the young, but not too young. While the night is made for twenty-somethings to rock it out, the preschool set is often left completely out. It’s hard to be tucked in at 8 o’clock when all of the focus is on the magic of midnight.
That’s why we were beyond delighted when our reader, Sandra Tuckman, shared one of her family traditions with us.
The real magic is how stinking easy it is. The Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy should take notes.
Show your precious snowflakes a plate of Cheerios.
Let them sprinkle milk and/or Magic Dust of choice on the little Os.
Explain to your kids they have to be asleep waaaaayyy before midnight for the magic to happen.
Enjoy a quiet glass of champagne with your sweetie at midnight . . . or 10 PM. Whatever.
Remember to replace the Cheerios with doughnuts!
Behold their delighted faces in the morning.
So simple! But remember to match the number of Cheerios to the number of doughnuts. Makes more sense that way . . . like a bunny delivering eggs or a fairy collecting teeth.
Now you can up your game if it all feels too simple. Remember the Magic Dust we mentioned? It allows all sorts of room for creativity.
Sprinkle cocoa for chocolate doughnuts.
Sprinkle powdered sugar for powdered doughnuts.
Sprinkle cinnamon for, you guessed it, cinnamon doughnuts.
Use sprinkles over the Cheerios, then do the same for the doughnuts.
If you really want to impress Pinterest, you could dip the Cheerios in icing and sprinkles for frosted doughnuts.
With the dawning of 2014, we realize once again just how quickly time flies when you are riding the jet plane of fun known as parenthood. Looking in the rear view mirror, we are gratified that much of it was more than good, it was great. But lest we forget, we are recording for Auld Lang Syne:
1. We Partied Like Rock Stars
Well, that might be overstating it a bit, but we did have a darn good time every time we got together. Whether we were climbing mountains, kayaking down rivers, or squiring our girls to the theater, we really did know how to get our fun on. And we can throw a party like nobody’s business. But, we just miiiiiight be over baby showers at this point. Don’t hold it against us.
Taste Testers
But it wasn’t all fun and games. . .
2. We Gained Some Perspective
Blogging really does encourage us to slow down and appreciate our kids, ourselves, and our friends. Whether we were learning from the mouths of babes after a neighborhood fire, watching teens helping a friend with autism, or realizing that this whole Mom gig works much better when you rustle up a posse, we expanded our points of view. This helped us greatly come to grips with some of the thornier aspects of our lives.
3. We Called a Truce
We have a love/hate relationship with kids’ sports. We love the exercise and discipline, but we kinda hate the driving and the sideline politics. A fresh outlook gave us just the attitude adjustment needed to bury the hatchet with organized sports after some small travel team fiascoes. We were able to focus on all the positive things sports bring into our lives.
Penalty! Illegal use of hands . . . and gums.
4. We Were Published!
We were so excited to be a part of the anthology, You Have Lipstick on Your Teeth. We got the thrill of seeing our names in print–in a for real book–and scored the cyber honor of our own Amazon authors’ pages. Here is Ellen’s and here is Erin’s. But what really made our hearts happy was meeting many of our co-authors and even going to our very first book signing! And then there was a second book signing! With cupcakes.
Beware the penguin. Respect The Sisterhood.
5. We Were a BlogHer Humor Voice of the Year!
We were beyond stoked when were chosen as a BlogHer Humor Voice of the Year for The Sensible Sisterhood Summer Camp. We just felt acknowledged. We even made a video so everyone could recognize us. (Good thing we had name tags.)
Judging women’s adequate appreciation of motherhood is a plague upon the internet. But instead of choosing sides, we picked humor because, well, to quote our own piece: “Kids can be narcissistic Napoleonic assholes.” We might not have been as playful when Ellen took a writer and mother to task for “pinkwashing” Harry Potter. Let’s all just be sensible, m’kay?
7. We Read A Ton!
Almost nothing brings us as much joy as a good book. Our families, Cheez-its, and Sour Patch Kids are pretty great too, but books, well, we girls have no words. Who are we kidding? We’re nothing if not verbose and here are all of the book lists we made to prove it:
This was the year Ellen’s family put in a pool. They saved and they planned ahead and it should have been been completed by the beginning of May. Should have been. Mother Nature didn’t understand that we wanted our water fun with a side of sun, NOT in the form of endless rain. (Are you now singing Purple Rain in your head? No? You are now.)
Track the progress from us trying to pass off the excavation as a “fun summer camp activity” to the “Ghetto Chic Stage” it was forever stuck in, to the big reveal. It even served as our blogging office. Bring a cooler full of drinks and food and Ellen might even unlock the gate for you.
9. We Sent Up a Flare For the Teen Years
By February, we will have five teenagers between the two of us. Before you start passing around a collection plate to pay for our Sour Patch Kids and chocolate therapy, listen to this: it’s not so bad on this side of the border. Sure, teens can remind you an awful lot of their tyrant two year old selves (it’s amazing how much they are alike). But they can also be sweet and funny and generous when they let their true spirits seep out from under the cloud of Axe and angst they tote around. And yes, the teen years can be scary, but we believe firmly that duct tape, kisses, and prayers really do help.
10. We Got By With a Little Help From Our Friends
We had fantastic fun imagining how great our lives would be if we could just rent a Sister Wife. Actually that is not entirely true because we know the joys of Sisterly help. Don’t go signing us up for a reality show (unless of course, you have actual connections because we have some ideas for you). We’re talking about the all mom/all kid Big Love Camping Trip we take every year with our three other friends. No really, it’s fun.
But one of our greatest joys was meeting the friends inside of our computer. Lines were blurred and blogging friends became real life friends. True friends, no matter where they live, make life more rich and joyous.
Here’s to another great year full of friendship, love, and good enough parenting!
(Ellen promises not to toast you with this monstrosity.)
Here at the Sisterhood, we are huge fans of Pinterest. We have over 3,900 pins to prove it. But you have to be wary of the Pintershizz. It can lead you to lose your mind by goading you to go over the top or, more benignly, it can just be pure entertainment. Pure, disturbing, entertainment. The problem is when you fall for executing the Pintershizz and end up getting Pinter-punked. Pinterest fails are tragic, y’all.
Erin:Do you really want to start out the new year with such negativity?
Ellen: Well, how about this? We ended 2012 getting Pinter-punked?
Erin:It’s really more accurate. And it would be ABSOLUTELY accurate is you said YOU ended 2012 by getting Pinter-punked.
Ellen: All I wanted to do was bring a fancy schmancy cocktail to your house for New Year’s Eve. Pinterest was full of them and I had been so impressed when the Michalaks showed up at the last soiree with this refreshing gem of their own creation.
Ellen: Because I wanted to be different and if you never DO or MAKE any of the crap you pin, isn’t it just electronic hoarding?
With a start this Martha Stewart-esque, what could go wrong?
Erin:Well your prep basket was Pinterest-worthy, but what made you choose The Kahlua Float?
Ellen: It looked gorgeous. I love Kahlua. It had champagne. What is more perfect for New Year’s Eve than a cocktail that has champagne??
Erin:Okay, but what about the coffee ice cream? I have to tell you, coffee ice cream makes me want to gag.
Ellen: You might be missing the point. What SHOULD have made ME gag was the thought of coffee ice cream IN white wine. Here’s the recipe: 1 scoop espresso or coffee ice cream, 1.5 oz Kahlua, topped with 1/8 cup champagne. Ew! Who puts ice cream in wine??? My only defense is that I was enchanted by this photo.
Erin:Or maybe it failed because you rednecked it up. Nice plastic glass. And it probably would have been better if you had used chocolate sprinkles.
What??
Ellen: First, I expected you to have champagne flutes or at the very least, wine glasses for me to use. I really brought the plastic cups for the root beer floats for the kids. Second, it was not the sprinkles. So I got caramel jimmies instead of chocolate. Walmart was out.
Erin:Redneck point punctuated . . .
Ellen: You just go on throwing stones at my plastic cups. I was not going to multiple stores to find chocolate sprinkles. Have you ever tasted a sprinkle? By itself? No matter what flavor they say they are, they taste like nothing. They are flavorless hydrogenated calorie bombs. One tablespoon is 60 calories.
Erin:Get out! That’s crazy! So if you have an ice cream cone covered in sprinkles, you really could have another scoop of ice cream for the same amount of calories? So I’m going back to my original statement, but with more venom. This drink failed because sprinkles are the devil.
Ellen: Okay, I’ll go along with sprinkles being the Trojan Horse of calories and they are miserable to drink through or around . . .
Erin:But it was super fun to pick them out of your scarf and I even think I got some in my hair. And down my shirt.
Ellen: Don’t forget getting them up your nose. But back to my points. This drink failed because it was ice cream in wine! Coffee ice cream, no less, in white FIZZY wine. What was I thinking?? I went back to the original blog post and there were lots of comments saying how pretty the drink looked, but not much about its taste.
We just realized we coordinated. How cute is that? Now you can gag too.
Erin:You were lured in by the pretty picture! We did enjoy the Kahlua over the ice cream, though. That was yummy.
Ellen: But it was hardly a cocktail.
Erin:Maybe you should have consulted me first. My Rein-Beer at the Christmas party was a hit. I have never been steered down the merry pathway of Pintershizz. I read the directions and can just tell if its going to be good or not.
So Proud
Ellen: Well, la-di-da! Aren’t you the Princess of Pinterest? You twisted some pipe cleaners and glued some googly eyes. Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back. I’ve never gotten steered wrong like this either. One of my superpowers is picking out good recipes.
Erin:I don’t need to pat myself on the back because I’m wearing the tiara. I think your “Super Recipe Picker Outer” cape would go nicely with it.
Ellen: And on that note. . .
Happy New Year from The Sisterhood!
May 2013 bring you health, wealth, and enough wisdom to avoid stepping in the Pintershizz.
