Bringing In The New Year in Rachael Style

My son is convinced that his mother is verifiably weird. (Yes, he is a very smart boy, indeed!) My daughter is on the fence about this issue and the other is in denial. What we all agree on is that I don't do things the way everyone else does them and though my life can get expensive, it does not lack for laughs.


Tonight we spent New Year's Eve with friends. I was trying to figure out how to get a movie going (not having cable I can't navigate a TV anymore!) when I said, "How do you push play on this thing?"


My son is very literal. If I tell him to get dressed and then he can do such-in-such, he does exactly that. He puts on every item of clothes he is supposed to wear, but then gets bent out of shape when I tell him that brushing his teeth, brushing his hair, and washing his face are part of getting dressed.


"MOM! You said GET DRESSED. Brushing your teeth isn't getting dressed!"


Ok, technically he is correct, but surely he knows what I mean!


Eventually he'll learn about how he's supposed to be able to read a woman's mind.


So, my son, having a very literal mind, hears me ask how to push play on a DVD player and is now affirmed of his mother's weirdness. He looks up, sees the 2 new friends that joined us this New Year's, leans over to me and says in a hushed voice,


"Mom. Are you sure you want them to know you're weird?"


To which I reply, "Oh, Honey. They've read my blog."


Case closed. That satisfies his question.


As I mentioned, this was New Year's Eve. We spend every New Year's Eve with close friends. This year was fun because we had two new friends to share it with and because we had a costume party. A 70's costume party. I love costume parties! And I gave my costume much thought.


I didn't want to go the hippie route…everyone does that. But I also didn't want to spend a lot of money on a costume, which most of us understand these days.


I went the hippie route, but I had to do SOMETHiNG different! How could I jazz up this costume a bit? How could I make it a little more authentic with a twist of Rachael?


Let me say a big THANK YOU to Kiah. She was my inspiration. Without her I might never have come up with the perfect costume…











Oh, yes I did! I grew out my armpit hair. That big, bushy black thing you see there…that's real! I did not glue that on. I did not color it with a sharpie. Nope! That's the real thing right there!


My son rolled his eyes. My daughter turned her head away. My other daughter said, "MOM! That's GROSS! Shave it off!" and my poor husband...?


He just focused on his own costume.