Archie comics, I can't even think of them without thinking of my friend Wendy and how we spent part of the '70s lying on her scratchy "health" rug reading all about Archie and the Riverdale gang.

It's hard to believe that they even exist outside of my childhood. But Archie does and it seems that Riverdale has grown up a lot in the last 30 years.

Archie has big event coming up: he is attending a wedding - a gay wedding.

Sometimes kids have something that we adults don't have: guts. They aren't always brought down by the what-ifs of a situation and go for it. (This is, of course, a downside of teens as well.)

These two high-schoolers from Toronto are a great example. They decided to send a weather balloon, camera, and a Lego minifigure holding a Canadian flag into the stratosphere just because they wanted to. And so they did and it actually worked. And they have an amazing video to show for it.

My daughter has the most hilarious school photo this year. She is wearing a black tank dress and a purple clip-on braid. She looks like a rocker and she is only five. I can't wait to use the photo in some future slideshow when she is older.

(And no I won't post it, sorry.)

There are some gaps in my holiday shopping due to a lingering flu-like thing and you know, life. So you know what that means -- I will be doing some panicked last-minute shopping which can lead to bad decision making. That is, unless I can figure out ahead of time what are the best toys ever, that I can get with the least effort.

It's obvious once you think about it.

Do you know what I found in my mailbox today?

C A Magazine. As in, the magazine for accountants. Even a cynic like me has to ask: what happened to all the holiday cards?

Tonight is the first night of Chanukah. And as I write this, I am freaked out a little bit because I thought it was tomorrow night. Because my calendar says tomorrow, but I should know that Jewish holidays always start the night before, on the eve. Luckily, I have eight days to get caught up.

I know what you are thinking: eight days?

When people find out that we celebrate Chanukah, after they get over the first awkward Happy Chanukah statement, they always want to know a few things. Like:

My daughter told my mother she wants a dollhouse for Chrismukkah. This is the first I have heard of it. So now I am trying to figure out which dollhouse will make us both happy.

Why both of us? Well, gift-giving has turned into list-making and gate-keeping in our house. It's not because we have strict political rules like no plastic, and no commercially-themed items (okay, we are a little against completely commercial items).

When I first heard that Disney was rebooting The Muppets, I didn't really give it a second thought. They were funny when I was kid, but the decades-old movies are a bit painful to watch these days and their goody-two-shoe optimism has had its day.

But then the trailers and the spoofs came out and it felt like the Muppets were in on the joke. Could this be a reboot of characters from my childhood without all the cynicism and sexed-up characters that plague all the other comebacks from my youth?

No presents please, just your presence is appreciated. It is my (belated) two year blogiversary. My second anniversary of blogging here at Embrace the Chaos was in October. But I have been so busy keeping up with the news and managing chaos that I haven’t had time to reflect on the goings-on here in my tiny corner of the Internet.

But I have learned some things along the way this year including:

Do you hang on to some of your kids' beloved clothes long after they have outgrown them?

I have some shirts from the boys, a couple of tops and dresses from my daughter. Every time I look at them I remember the way they looked in them, and they way they acted in that certain item. I can literally picture them standing in front of me in that outfit, like a ghost of days gone by.

I bury the small clothes in the basement and then, about once a year when my husband forces me to clean up, I come across them. Then I have a frisson moment where I feel the pain of them growing up, but also happiness at the memory of them as little children.

Keeping dirty onesies, torn jeans and wrinkled dresses is nothing more than being sentimental. And it is something that I should let go of. It is hard because the physical reminder of the item is what brings back the flood of memories.

But clutter is clutter and those piles of favourite kids' items get weaned down. It is the right thing to do. As my husband says, those memories are in your head - not your closet.

I wonder what I will do with the remaining items. Will I toss them eventually? Will I pay someone to compile all the pieces into a baby blanket for a grandchild? Or will I just hang on to them and reflect on the time I held up those teeny tiny sleepers to my swelling belly, amazed that the wearer was going to be born in weeks; those fleeting days when my kids were so little that they couldn't dress themselves; the year when they thought that Spiderman pajamas gave them superpowers; when the love for one particular shirt could make or break an entire day. Holding on to a few pieces of clothing isn't the most rational thing that a parent does - but in a few instances, I can cast rationality aside for a little space in storage.

What do you with your kids' most special clothes? Do you give them all away? Do you have a few hiding in the closet?

Want more chaos? Last year, I admitted one of my deepest secrets: I cheated and I got caught. You won't believe that I could be that stupid.

Enjoy this post? 'Like' the Embrace the Chaos Facebook page to get each post directly in your newsfeed