Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful celebration this weekend.  I'm a New Years Grinch and think it is by far the most overrated holiday on the calendar.  So I donned my pjs and bathrobe and watched Dick Clark with my sweetheart then fell promptly to sleep at 12:02 a.m.  And as strange as it sounds, we haven't even bothered to explain the New Year to our kids.  They haven't really figured out the days of the week yet, so a whole new year would just blow their little minds. 

As I am a Grinch for this holiday, I am also anti-resolutions.  But I did hear a great piece on NPR about the New York City tradition of shredding bad memories at the end of the year in order to start fresh in the new year. 

We've had a pretty good year, though I know many people, people I'm close to, that are perfectly happy to say goodbye to 2011.  I like the idea of shredding the bad memories, a physical and symbolic (dare I say liturgical?) act for getting out the bad juju to make way for the good.  The people waiting in line were not actually shredding ex-boyfriends--as much as some may have liked to-- they were shredding old letters and photos, symbols of soured relationships.

But I have just enough Pollyanna in me that I don't want to leave any year in complete shreds.  Every year has its blessings, even when the year seems as bad as it can be.  So this year, I'm going to think about three things:

Something I’d like to NOT repeat in 2012.

Something that I discovered in 2011 that I’d like to bring into 2012.

Something brand new that I’d like to “try on” in 2012.

My hope is that I can find things to bring into the new year that show that I am actually learning, that I am moving forward.  Not everything is "out with the old and in with the new." New is great and sometimes old needs to go, but there is great value in hanging on to what works. 

So how would you answer these questions?