I never do my Christmas shopping a day before the 22nd of December. I am a teacher and teachers, including the despicable Arthur Mitchell on Dexter, design their personal lives around their time off. So my Christmas planning and shopping happens when I am off for the winter break.
Making lists and shopping for people that you only see once a year is tough. Suffice it to say that there must be ways to let all of your random little aunts, uncles, and cousins know that you love them without buying them something that they really don't need or want. I'm nervous about giving an example, because what if that one girl in Idaho who loves my blog is lost to me forever because I said no one wants koosh balls when they are over thirty, and that is what she gave everyone in her book club? Better stay clear of judgments. This year, I gave calendars.
I love calendars. Our society loves calendars. We need to write it down. When I taught in brick and mortar schools I made sure my students wrote their work down in the agenda books they were given for free with our tax dollars. I loved my leather day planner my future father in law gave me for student teaching. I also had a dry erase calendar that I kept on the fridge to keep track of everything for home, but that has been replaced, I must confess, with the Google calendar. I am really getting the hang of the Google calendar. I had the planner, but I also had a HUGE desk calendar I kept duh, on my desk. Now it is all on my Google one, and it can pop up on my main page, and repeat itself, and be copied to my husband's calendar. The joy of that is that if the kids have dentist appointments, Kevin will see it and know that everyone might be a wee bit crankier than usual when he gets home, myself included.
Even before the engagement calendars you could buy at Hallmark or the planners you could get at Staples, The Aztecs and other societies had their own calendars. The
Aztec calendar is way too confusing to me. I have seen it at the museum in Mexico City and I don't get it. I don't think Aztec kids were in danger of being late to piano practice. Which calendar did God tell us was the official one? I missed his memo....
Special education moms need those calendars. One of my favorite movies growing up was Better Off Dead. There was one scene when John Cusak's character didn't do his homework, but instead of writing it down in a calendar to keep track of his life with, he pulled out a sheet of notebook paper that had gum on it that said, "Do homework." I know people like that, but it wouldn't have worked for me. At the height of our early intervention, I had to keep track of speech, PT, OT, early intervention preschool, play dates, and gymnastics. Let's not forget doctors appointments. This was when I just had one child. Now I also have to keep track of her schedule at school because she will only wear pants on P.E. day, oh yeah, and my boys have a life too. Grrrr.
Since I live for my calendar, I wanted to share my love of it this Christmas. Now that Google and other online calendars are taking off, I decided to focus on the Page-a-Day calendar. Those of us who like those calendars live to wake up in the morning, brew the coffee, and pull that paper to see what chuckle or tid-bit of information we will receive for that day. I have had some great Page-a-Day calendars over the years: I had one Vincent Van Gogh paintings, and I swear I didn't know he was a red head like myself before then. I had a movie of the day calendar, and that gave me tons of ideas for everything from Rear Window to Citizen Ruth. I kept the Spanish word of the day in my classroom and the kids and I would flip together.
The king of all Page-a-Day calendars: The Far Side. I don't think you can top some of the things that man came up with. Everyone has a favorite. I guess mine would have to be the
dolphins speaking Spanish and the marine biologists couldn't crack the code. Either that or the
gifted kid pushing on the pull door. How I miss Gary Larson.
Winner of the best Page-a-Day day, is September 12, 2001. (This story is not a lie.) My cousin Matty gave me a Page-a-Day Simpsons Calendar. I LOVED that calendar. When I opened it on Christmas Eve of 2000 I jumped up and down and did the happy dance around the room. It was like he had given me diamonds. Then on September 12, 2001, I gratefully took September 11th off and there was Bart Simpson saying "I never thought it was humanly possible, but this both sucks and blows." That was the day I decided that there was power in a Page-a-Day calendar and that The Simpsons were pure genius. Well said Bart, well said.
So, when you don't know what to give-give a calendar. You can make them if you want to get creative. I can't wait for January first, because that is when I get my first "The Office" quote. Dunder Mifflin once a day? 2010 keeps looking better and better.
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Comments (2)
Have you ever seen a Balinese calendar? The Balinese have 13 different types of week (a week 13 has 13 days, a week 12 has 12 days etc). When certain days from each of these weeks coincide it seems to be a Holy day. I don't think its possible to produce a page-a-day calendar for Bali! (Whenever I am there I stick to Mon, Tue etc. as I can't cope with the local version).
Small question, who is Arthur Mitchell? Why is he despicable?
@SavonDuJour@xanga - Oh sorry-he was a character on the television show Dexter. He was a very nasty serial killer and a school teacher during the day.