The very last day of the year.

How did it get here so fast? Seems like not too long ago we were ushering in the first day of 2012, a brand new year bright on the horizon and all those soon-to-be forgotten New Year's resolutions fresh on our to-do lists.

I can't recall the resolutions I made at the beginning of 2012 and I'm pretty sure that this time next year, I won't remember my 2013 resolutions, either.

Like most parents, I just try to get through each day with my sanity mostly intact. Most of the time, I succeed. But to try to resolve to do something for an entire year? Not likely to happen.

Boogie loves New Year's Eve, and even claims it's her favorite holiday. She keeps asking me what we're doing to celebrate the New Year and I just want to tell her that we're going to stay home, avoid all the drunks on the roads, eat pizza and watch movies until we all fall asleep.

But I know she'll be endlessly disappointed if we stay home and treat it just like any other day of the year. I don't like disappointing her when it doesn't take that much effort on my part to help celebrate the way she thinks we ought to celebrate.

We'll do something, I'm sure. I do have some ideas, but I'm just not feeling it this year. We'll probably go to a friend's party, have a good time, avoid all the drunks on the roads and I can be the good guy for making sure the kid got to party like it's 1999.

Although, I'd really rather sit at home in sweat pants to watch movies, enjoy an adult beverage or two and fall asleep well before ringing in the New Year, it's kind of nice being the good guy every now and then. I've become quite the homebody the older I get and that just frustrates the heck out my almost (in three days!) 12-year-old.

I'm pretty sure she wishes I was a bigger partier and wishes even more that I'd take her out partying with me. I have a feeling it's going to be a challenging few years once she gets her driver's license and wants to start leaving the safety of the nest more often. The little party animal.

I don't know how many kids make New Year's resolutions, but mine does. Hers are usually pretty silly, like "This year, I'm going to snare a yeti," or something equally impossible. She has fun with it, as she should, and she certainly doesn't let reality get in the way of her resolution making.

Although I generally forget my resolutions, this year I'm going to make a couple of general ones and see how I do:

1. Spend more quality time with my family.

2. Worry less. This is a hard one. I worry constantly, about everything. I worry so much I give myself ulcers.

Simple, right? Sometimes the seemingly simplest plans can be the hardest ones to fulfill. If I can make headway on both, I'll consider it a successful year, no matter what else life may throw at us during the next 12 months.