Calendar Days

It's that time of year for me. I got out the new calendar I'll be using for 2007 and filled in lots of dates. When I got married, my mother gave me a perpetual calendar book and had filled in birth dates and anniversaries of family members. I use it every year about this time and mark each celebration in the coming year so I won't be the lame-o relative and forget important dates. This year I also used Mae's school listing of holidays and events to fill in days off and vacations. Man, they sure do have a lot of days off! She will get more days off than I ever did as a kid. Sheesh! But the school year does not end for her until almost the very end of June, so I suppose that makes up for all the days she will be missing.

The 2007 calendar we will be sporting in the new year came free with our zoo membership (thank you Zoo!). Every month has a featured animal for the main picture (surprise) along with zoo events added into the corresponding day (gee, thanks for taking up valuable space!). In our early years of marriage it had been a sort of tradition to pick out a new calendar for the year. I think our first year together we both decided on an Ansel Adams calendar. Then the following year featured shots of cathedrals, or maybe it was a famous photographer that included pictures of a few churches (ah! I can't remember!). Anyway, as the years went by it became less of a tradition and we slowly accepted the freebies that came our way. I guess that's how we came upon our newest one. It started out as something fun to do together but now it is just something to remind me, the mom, of doctor appointments and no-school days. The calendar has also become a central location for me to keep track of doctors phone numbers, stamps, and important baby sitter info. With all this stuff paper clipped to the side I can no longer really see the featured picture of the month. Oh well, I don't need to look at the calendar to know what a lounging polar bear looks like.

Happy New Year!