Oh, 2012. You are my favorite year of all the New Years. So gentle, so charismatic, so imminent. I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions, but for you kid? I’ll make an exception.

Image credit Butterflyfood

Eat more donuts.
When you’re drunk at 3:30 a.m.? Donuts. When you have eight bucks, but need breakfast for yourself and eleven of your closest friends? Donuts. When you’re a weirdly permissive parent? Organizing a party game where you tie a tasty snack to a string? So two teenagers can kind of make out as they eat it? Let’s just say cupcakes never led to dry humping. We hate you, cupcakes. Donuts! 2012.

Image credit Ulala

Carry less crap.
They make enormous purses now, which is convenient if you need to transport a ham or a human head. But do I need a digital SLR, a book, a notepad, and three kinds of lip balm to grab a cup of coffee? Spinal health, 2012.

Image credit Alyssa Ettinger.

Light more candles.
I’m writing this by candle light. You feel sexier just reading that. Candles, 2012.

Image credit Chooseanalog.

Read some books.
My memory and attention span have been

Keychain from Brookfarm General Store.

Organize the little stuff.
I recently inherited a key on a handmade ring that actually stabbed me like barbed wire. I used it for about a month. Then I got one of those keychains with multiple tiny key rings, each of which has a quick release. Now I feel so tidy and content when I use my keys. Yesterday, I bought some special hangers just for my scarves. De-fricking-lightful.

Image credit KZSC.

Listen to more music.
I love music, but in the past I rarely made time for it. I can’t get much done if there’s music playing, because I stop what I’m doing to listen. So lately, I’ve just been listening to music and failing to get stuff done. Worth it. Dancin’, 2012.

That’s how next year is shaping up for me. What are you resolutions for the New Year, team? Wanna go get donuts?

Oh, what a quaint little tea set! So sweet and…

Wait a minute.

(Crane Motif Tea Set from The Big8s on Etsy $209)

This particular episode of Animals Being Dicks makes me ponder the bigger questions.

In Central and South America, it’s a tradition to buy new underwear for New Year’s Eve. In Brazil, they wear different colors depending on what they’re wishing for, in Mexico they wear red, and in Buenos Aires a shopkeeper told me that girlfriends sometimes give each other new pink underwear for luck. I love this, the idea of having something pretty just for yourself as a fresh start.

I’ve been collecting images of vintage lingerie on Pinterest for a while. I love silk, tap pants, and slips with patterns. Underwear used to be so much prettier and more functional than it is now. Have a look:

What are your New Year’s traditions?

(Say, you might also like:
On Chafing, you come to my rescue with comfy underwear suggestions
Project! Pretty Lingerie Drawer, wherein we organize our skivvies)

(Image from For Me, For You)

The best parts of It Chooses You by Miranda July:

I kept the house because the rent is cheap and I write there; it’s become my office. And the great northern beans, the cinnamon, and the rice keep the light on for me, should anything go horribly wrong, or should I come to my senses and reclaim my position as the most alone person who ever existed.

It was an act of devotion. A little like writing or loving someone — it doesn’t always feel worthwhile, but not giving up somehow creates unexpected meaning over time.

…I wasn’t in a fairytale or a fable. I shut my eyes and absorbed the silent whoomp that always accompanies this revelation. It’s the sound of the real world, gigantic and impossible, replacing the smaller version of reality that I wear like a bonnet, clutched tightly under my chin.

I had shortened my life in another way too, by marrying a man who was eight years older than me, meaning he would die exactly eight years before me, rendering the last eight years of my life useless. I would just spend it crying.

Ron was exactly the kind of man you spend your whole life being careful not to end up in the apartment of. And since I was raised to go out of my way to make such men feel understood, I took extra-special care with his inteview. But as he talked on and on (the original transcript was more than fifty pages), I realized that I don’t actually want to understand this kind of man — I just want them to feel understood, because I fear what will happen if I am thought of as yet another person who doesn’t believe them. I want to be the one they spare on the day of reckoning.

In my lexicon of signs and symbols, obsessively organized pictures of Prisons, Babies, and Nice Girls are an indication that something of great consequence is afoot.

All I ever really want to know is how other people are making it through life — where do they put their body, hour by hour, and how do they cope inside of it.

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We’re still in the judging phase, but these are a few of my favorite kid photos from the family memory photo contest so far. Oh my friends, look at these superior children. Bring them to me for snorzels and belly biting! Bring them here!

From Emily Harrison

From Beth Stecher

From Emily Harrison

From Justine

From Justine

From Jenny Slade

From Priscilla

From Rochelle Borne

Hooray for the tiny ones. They make me all smiley.

If you haven’t entered yet, I’m partnering with Federated Media to host a merit-based contest on Flickr where you could win a $500 gift certificate to Best Buy. Just upload a photo to Flickr that captures a family memory (up to five photos, actually). Double check that your photos are tagged public so everyone can see them, and then add the tag: #CapturedPhotoContest_MightyGirl. The official contest rules are over here, and the contest ends December 24th. When judging is complete, ePrize will contact the winner through Flicker Mail. (Look for the “Family Memory Photo Contest Notice” screen name on or around 01/16/12.) Photos will be judged on originality, photo quality, and best display of a family memory. Fingers crossed.

“When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That is my religion.”

— Abraham Lincoln

Image of Annie Liebowitz photographing Lincoln’s hat from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Blog

It was like this:
you were happy, then you were sad,
then happy again, then not.

It went on.
You were innocent or you were guilty.
Actions were taken, or not.

At times you spoke, at other times you were silent.
Mostly, it seems you were silent — what could you say?

Now it is almost over.

Like a lover, your life bends down and kisses your life.

It does this not in forgiveness —
between you, there is nothing to forgive —
but with the simple nod of a baker at the moment
he sees the bread is finished with transformation.

Eating, too, is now a thing only for others.

It doesn’t matter what they will make of you
or your days: they will be wrong,
they will miss the wrong woman, miss the wrong man,
all the stories they tell will be tales of their own invention.

Your story was this: you were happy, then you were sad,
you slept, you awakened.
Sometimes you ate roasted chestnuts, sometimes persimmons.

— Jane Hirshfield

This Captured Series post is brought to you by Best Buy. Get unbeatable prices on all digital cameras to capture your family memories this holiday season!
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When Hank was tiny and did something cute, kidless friends used to say “Oh! My dog does that. Not to compare your baby to my dog.” And then I’d say, “My child’s attachment object is a chew toy. We’re cool.”

This is Hank with Beebo, a rubber chicken we got one day when Hank insisted on stopping in to the neighborhood pet shop because he thought it was a toy store. Beebo squeaks when you squeeze him, and the squeak sounds remarkably like, Beeeeebooooow! or BEE-BOW!, depending on how forceful your affection. Beebo was the first toy Hank loved like a person. He refused to go anywhere without the rubber chicken, and I would occasionally look in the rearview mirror to find Hank gazing soulfully into Beebo’s eye nubbins, or rubbing Beebo’s plucked rubber body softly against his cheek.

Of course, Hank also slept with Beebo. I’d put him to bed, and then read in the quiet of the living room. Every half hour or so, I’d hear a sharp BEE! when Hank rolled over, and then a corresponding “Boooow” when he flipped back. Best baby monitor on record.

Your family photos are awesome, team. I’ve been checking in to see what you look like and read your stories. Next week, I’ll features some of my favorites here. If you haven’t entered yet, I’m partnering with Federated Media to host a merit-based contest on Flickr where you could win a $500 gift certificate to Best Buy. Just upload a photo to Flickr that captures a family memory (up to five photos, actually). Double check that your photos are tagged public so everyone can see them, and then add the tag: #CapturedPhotoContest_MightyGirl. We’ll judge on originality, photo quality, and best display of a family memory, and then we’ll contact the winner via Flickr mail. The official contest rules are over here, and the contest ends December 24th. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.