A New Year

"It's dark. Who are you?" was the almost eight year old's contribution to our New Year's Eve dinner game of Jokes and Riddles We Make Up.

"That's scary," said her big sister.

"That's deep," said her mom, who approved the question on this most reflective of long nights.

My own products of that reflection (Life is various and wonderful, constantly new and ever-ending; 2012 was both the year I turned 47 and apparently the last time I will be able to fool the mirror into believing otherwise; no matter -- when I don't like what I see, I smile and it improves the view; this clean and quiet time in deep winter may be the perfect season for the year to begin again as well as to end....) will need to wait for another post to be compiled, (or not, since this living business takes up so much of my time these days.)

But I really do want to tell you another of the homemade jokes from the last night of the year that we spent together at the fancy mountaintop restaurant where I was working it as Camp Counselor Mom ("Let's play Jeopardy! First category, Beetlejuice!") to stave off the electronics option that was keeping our neighboring table quietly engrossed in their laps.

This joke takes some effort; say it outloud for the full effect.

Here's the original, a family favorite from dear friend Brent:

Two monkeys are sitting in a tree and one asks the other, (jut your lower jaw forward as far as it will go) "Do you ever get water in your mouth when it rains?"

(Now pull your jaw back and give yourself an enormous overbite to be the other monkey) "No, why do you ask?"

Mia's variation: Two bats are hanging from a tree and one asks, (do the underbite again) "Do you ever get water in your mouth when it rains?

(Pull the overbite and say) "Oh yeah, all the time! And you?

Third variation:

Two camels are walking through the desert and one asks... Etc.

The second one says, "We live in the desert. It never rains here."

Here's hoping you have some silliness and shared laughter of your own this 2013.