Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Happy New Year (2013)

It is a new year and a good excuse to make changes in our lives for improvement. It is also a time when we observe time-honored traditions: Staying up until midnight and toasting the new year with our loved ones, making new year's resolutions, and my mother's number-pancakes.

Yes, that's right. I said number-pancakes. Every year since I was young, Mom has drizzled pancake batter onto her griddle in the shape of numbers on New Year's morning. It has become quite the family tradition. This year, Mom drizzled the numbers 2, 0, 1 and 3 for seven family members (including herself). My sister, who did not make it over for breakfast, likewise prepared number-pancakes for her husband and herself in their home.

So it was that my brother and his wife, their son, my daughter and I came to be talking at my mother's dinette as she stood cooking numbers on New Year's morning 2013. We were talking about the number pancakes when I looked at my daughter, smiling and chatting, and thought, "Her teeth are really looking grungy... and I am about to sink a few hundred dollars into buying her a new retainer. I want her to take care of that smile!"

So when their was a pause in the conversation, which was just turning to something other than number-pancakes, I took the opportunity to softly comment to her, "You really need to brush your teeth today."

"Okay," nodded my girl.

Right then, my mom (still talking about her pancakes) declared, "Once a year -- whether you like it or not."

Everyone but Mom laughed.

Happy New Year (2013) to all my readers. May this year bring many wonderful new ways for you to smile.

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