Happy New Year’s Eve Day! Another year has come and (nearly) gone, and what do I have to show for it?

Laundry, mostly. Lots of lots of laundry. (Oh, wait; that’s no different than any other time….)

No, seriously: I’m not much of a “New Year’s Resolutions” kind of person, but there is something about the end of the year that does cause one to sort of stop and take stock, you know? I hate to vow to do this or that, but I do like to reflect on what worked and what didn’t, and think about what I might like to prioritize for the coming year.

(It’s Resolutions Lite, now with half the commitment!)

When I look back on the steps my family took in 2008 to get greener, I feel pretty good about our choices. We started composting; we switched to bringing our own bags to the store; my husband and kids made us a rain barrel and we watered our garden from it all summer long; and I switched out many of our household cleaners for safer, greener options. It’s pretty good progress, I think.

Heading into 2009, I want to keep taking those small steps. I’m planning a much bigger garden this spring, so that we can grow even more of our own food. And I’m thinking it may be time for me to break the paper towel habit. Much like my love of bleach, it’s something I know I need to change. Maybe that will be my green pseudo-resolution for 2009.

What are some of the ways you’re thinking about going greener in the coming year?

Merry week-after-Christmas! I thought now would be a fitting time to come talk about the stomach flu I had last week that ruined our vacation.

Ha! Just kidding! (Well, not about the stomach flu. That actually happened, unfortunately.) I meant that I thought now would be a fitting time to come do an update on my pledge to take the No Gift Wrap Challenge this year.

At home we all did wonderfully; we used (and recycled) gift bags. And I’m very pleased to report that after traveling to visit family we also refrained from using wrapping paper… but our solutions on the road weren’t nearly so elegant. Because we had shipped so many items to our destination, and because several of them were too large for any gift bags we already possessed, anyway, we ended doing a lot of “Here’s your present, sorry it isn’t wrapped.”

So the good news is that we stuck to our pledge not to use gift wrap this year. But the bad news is that I feel like we looked like thoughtless and/or cheap people with an inability to plan. My sister-in-law actually sewed the bag she put my gift into, and she’s inspired me to look for some cheap fabric and prepare better for next year.

How did you do this year? Did you give up paper? If so, how did it go? If not, did you take some other iddy biddy step towards greening your gift-giving?

Merry Christmahanukwanzaakah from all of us here at Idbids! Whatever you celebrate this holiday season—or even if you sit on your couch and say “Bah, Humbug!” to the world this week—we’re in the holiday spirit and hope that you and yours are having a safe, happy, and greener time, this year.

I was digging around for some ways to incorporate some greener habits into our holiday celebrations, and found a few resources I thought I’d share.

First, proof positive that even an iddy biddy step can be delicious: We always have fruit salad on Christmas morning (among other things), and I always marvel at the pile of orange peels that gets tossed out onto the compost pile. A friend introduced me to candied orange rinds (that recipe calls for dipping them in chocolate, which is yummy, but not even necessary), and now I’m feeling virtuous about making goodies! Turning the peels into edible treats may not seem like much, but it’s a small and easy way to reduce waste (and appear to be a gourmet, to boot).

Amy at Crunchy Domestic Goddess has a great round-up of eco-friendly holiday crafts, and my personal favorite are the light bulb ornaments. (Hey, we always seem to have a few incandescents hanging around; what better green way to use them?)

Eco Child’s Play’s Julie Finn has a few more green holiday craft ideas, including festive LEGO ornaments which you can simply disassemble and put away after Christmas.

GreenYour.com comes to the rescue with a comprehensive list of ways to green your Hanukkah, too.

However you celebrate, and whatever iddy biddy step you choose to take, happy holidays from the Idbids!

‘Tis the season to hop in the car and drive over the river and through the woods to visit with family, right? That’s what my family does, anyway. And while driving for days doesn’t thrill me, hanging out with the family and watching my children run around with their cousins does.

We’re not a family of lushes, I swear, but it does seem like these gatherings tend to include a lot of good food and—often, if we’re lucky—a bottle of wine or two. (Hey, depending on which family members show up, that wine may be necessary….) Of course I have a preference when it comes to types of wine; I’m actually allergic to red, so I will always opt for white. But is my chosen wine green?

I’d never thought about it before. Until recently, that is—when I ran across this piece titled Think Globally, Drink Locally and Stop being such a Snob!

A little over a year ago a couple of really smart guys did a study about what goes into a bottle of wine’s carbon footprint. Turns out that the vineyard itself is actually carbon neutral and depending upon fertilizer choice and harvesting techniques can actually go negative (if you believed Ronald Reagan in the 80’s you aren’t going to get that point). The biggest contributors to the production of CO2 in the manufacture of a bottle of wine are the packaging and the shipping.

Bottom line: Drink local wines, whenever you can. Barring that, opt for the wines with shorter journeys to your locale.

It’s not just great advice for a small step to take towards being greener, it may just be my favorite iddy biddy step so far. I mean, who doesn’t want a reason to feel good about a glass of wine…?

I always recycle.

Um, except when I don’t.

Yes, Internet, I’m coming clean. (Or I guess I’m admitting to when I stay dirty?) Sometimes I throw something in the regular trash rather than recycling it properly. Perhaps I need an iddy biddy kick in the pants.

Look; I’m a conscientious recycler. I am. Newspapers and the like go straight into the bin, each and every time. Empty milk and orange juice containers, sure. The little tubs that yogurt and parmesan cheese and raisins come in, absolutely.

But peanut butter? I confess that I’ve thrown a container in the trash rather than deal with actually getting it clean enough to put out in the recycle bin without fear of the local wildlife having a late-night party on my lawn. And occasionally I toss a spice container in the trash—it’s small, you know, and easy to just overlook—and later think, “Wait, was that recyclable?”

And don’t get me started on the wayward leftovers that sometimes make their way to the back of the fridge and sprout their own ecosystems. If those are in disposable containers, well, I dispose of them.

I’m hanging my head in shame. Truly. I vow to do better. But in the meantime, if you told me you were the same way, I might feel a little better….

I love it when kid-centric media uses its power for good.

Really; I mean, they’ve still got a job to do—which is primarily making money, sure—but when they inject a little bit of humanity and goodness into their mission, well, it makes me feel all mushy inside.

And so yesterday, when Nickeloden launched The Big Green Help, my heart grew three sizes. Wait; that was the Grinch, not me. But I really dug it, is my point.

It’s a whole bunch of things—daily green tips, quizzes, a glossary, online games with their favorite Nicktoons—but it also features the Big Green Help Global Challenge multiplayer game. Let your kids download it and pledge real-world hours to reduce their carbon footprints! Nickelodeon is working in conjunction with groups like 4-H, the National Wildlife Federation, Boys & Girls Club of America, and more. It’s serious fun with serious results.

And best of all, kids will be clamoring to do their part to help make a greener world. It’s brilliant!

So today I’m going to take a break from thinking about all the ways in which I’m failing the environment (coming soon: exactly how much angst can I generate with a single roll of paper towels?) to talk about a few of the ways in which the Idbids are rocking my socks off.

Can I say that, here? Rocking my socks off? I think Mother Earth would approve.

Item the first: Did you happen to catch the kind mention of the Idbids in USA Weekend in your Sunday paper? I did. I may have squealed a little.

Item the second: Did you know that every year STEP Inside Design does a design competition? The Idbids Starter Kit was picked from amongst over 2,000 entries to be one of the 100 runners-up, which are now available in a Readers’ Choice contest. You might want to go over there and have a look. Maybe even register, and vote? All of the entries are superb, but Scout, Waverly and Lola (on page 11 of the gallery) really stand out, we think.

Item the third: As a special pre-holiday incentive, right now if you go vote for your favorite Idbid, you’ll get $5 off your order and free shipping. Just in case you needed a little help deciding to get started on your iddy biddy steps to making a biggie big difference.

I can’t decide which one is my favorite Idbid, though. I may be in trouble.

Part of what I love about gift-giving is the suspense, particularly for the kids. I try to start putting presents under our tree as soon as we put it up, because I love to hear the kids spend several weeks trying to figure out what’s in those brightly-colored packages. (For the record, we do a pretty modest celebration. Three gifts apiece, just like someone else got on Christmas.)

This year, I decided to join some other folks in a challenge—the No Gift Wrap Challenge. And I’m already feeling somewhat challenged, because while I’m happy not to be needlessly wasting paper, I still really want to put everything under the tree to torment my children build the suspense. And that means it needs to be at least somewhat disguised.

We have some paper gift bags we tend to reuse every year, so I can use those. Ditto for some shirt boxes with holiday prints. And I may invest in some fabric gift-wrap options, too. But one of the neatest “green” options I’m intrigued by is wrapping other items in clothing… and while one of the three gifts is always some new clothes, I hate to have each new shirt or whatever exposed that way for weeks before we unwrap. Hrm.

Oh, wait! Maybe I should just wrap everything in all my extra catalogs! (Okay, maybe not. Even though I’d still recycle it all, that’d waste a bunch of tape.)

Do you have any great green gift-wrapping ideas this year?

Remember when the cost of gas went sky-high, and people were freaking out over being able to fill their tanks? Oh, I was smug. Yes I was. “I work from home,” I’d say. “I do a lot of my shopping online,” I’d say. Sure, I felt the increase, but it was nothing like what folks with a daily commute were feeling.

And as the UPS guy stops off here every so often (read: every other day or so) (hey, some of it’s work stuff), I like to pat myself on the back about how I’m saving money and even keeping my carbon footprint pretty small, because those delivery trucks have to pass my house every day anyway, but I’m saving trips to the mall and such.

But now the “holiday season” is in full force and the guilt is back—because now, my mailbox is full every single day. Full of catalogs. Some for stores I’ve purchased from, online. Some for stores I’ve never even heard of. It is out of control. Yesterday we got two pieces of mail and ten catalogs.

I’m putting them in the recycling bin, but even so, it’s just incredibly wasteful. And I’ve done the free membership at GreenDimes, before, but it doesn’t seem to be helping. I may move up to their Premium service to see if that helps reduce the madness. Does anyone have any other ideas? Please share, because we’re drowning over here….

(With my apologies to Schoolhouse Rock.)

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and this is traditionally the week where I start feeling what I refer to as lazy guilt—we’re all getting terribly sick of leftovers, but I soldier on with insisting we eat them yet again, and then eventually I throw out a ton of food. And I feel guilty, because I know it’s wasteful. And then I do exactly the same thing the following year.

What’s that, about the definition of insanity being doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result…?

This year I planned better on several fronts: We invited folks for dinner and I made an appropriate amount of food (so there were leftovers, but not insane amounts); I not only made turkey stock with the carcass, but I froze it in smaller containers (last year’s turkey stock was still in the freezer in a giant container, never used because when was I going to make a gallon of soup all at once??) (also: stock + leftovers = awesome soups!); I planned follow-up meals that utilized the leftovers; and I immediately froze what we wouldn’t be using.

So it was still a giant meal of excess, but at least there was close to zero waste, which felt a little greener. It feels like a victory, not throwing away perfectly good food. And that’s a sad commentary on my previous bad habits, but let’s focus on the good stuff, like the soup. Mmmm, soup.