GETTING THE JUMP ON THE NEW YEAR

Since the Thanksgiving season is being totally ignored in favor of the more lucrative Christmas season now, and Halloween is merely a preparation for the retail extravaganza, I’ve decided to skip straight to New Year’s Resolutions. Why go through the hustle and bustle of the holiday season?

So here are the things I’ve already put on my list.

1. No more reporters at my house.

Now, I know this may be a concept few of you have to entertain, and I never thought it would be on my list, either. But there you have it. From now on, I’ll meet reporters at restaurants, parks, on the Interstate . . . but not in my home. None of them has ever been less than professional, let me hasten to add. But it seems prudent to keep my home to my family.

2. No more dogs. That is, additional dogs.

I love the dogs we have, even though two of ours are actually Daughter’s leftovers. We devote an inordinate amount of time to Oscar, Rocky, Scrunch, and Colt (in order of acquisition). But by golly, four is too many. One jumps the fence, one digs under. One has a sneaky habit of wandering into the back of the house to use the bathroom where he shouldn’t. One has epilepsy. Enough.

3. No more putting things in the freezer without labeling them.

As God is my witness, I shall never do this again. Some things should be mysterious, but not food items.

I’m sure I’ll think of more resolutions to add to my list, but those will do to start with. And I see that I’ve put them all in the negative. Let me rephrase them in the positive: I will only meet reporters in public places. I will not adopt any more dogs. I will label everything I put into my freezer.

That does sound better.

4. I will be positive.

Comments

[Kelly Saderholm]

Those are excellent resolutions. Especially the labeling of freezer items. And the dogs.

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

I'm laughing. I'm laughing so hard. No more reporters at my house--well, okay then. One is enough at our house, I guess.

Labeling frozen food. Ah HA! Oh, Charlaine, don't you love the MYSTERY of the unidentified foil packets? and who knows HOW LONG they've been in there?

Can we talk about saving paper bags?

[Elaine Viets]

Er, some of my best friends are reporters. And I have one around the house. I married him. But when we see friends, they say, "This evening is off the record."
Now, if I could just clean off my desk. Or maybe it will be easier at this stage to set fire to it.

[Charlaine Harris]

And any time Don wants to come to my house as my guest, I'd be so glad to see him. All the reporters who've come to my house in their professional capacity have been great. But I think it's time I started meeting them somewhere neutral. On the other hand, it was a good incentive to clean my office!

[Jody Crocker]

I've been working really hard at trying to label items I put in the freezer, esp. the leftovers!
Great resolutions.
I'll continue to work at keeping up with my exercises & losing weight, while not forgetting to enjoy life & food.

[Dana]

Sounds good, Charlaine! I'm a big fan of both a Sharpie marker for freezer-bound food AND making a list of what's in the freezer. Between the labels and the list, we can just about manage to wrangle the stuff we keep...almost.

[KrisL]

If you keep a pen and tape (or whatever you use to label the food in the freezer), it should make it easier to remember. I've found that for things I don't want to bother with, the easier it is to do them, the more likely it is that I will.