New Year's Eve ended with my children watching the animated movie El Dorado. If you haven't seen it, it's a story in which two con men hitch a ride with Cortez when he undertakes the conquest of Mexico in 1516. They wind up going overboard and find themselves in the Mayan jungle with a map leading to the legendary City of Gold, El Dorado. When the reach the city, they are assumed to be gods (that actually did happen to Cortez when he reached Tenochtitlan, but I digress) and offered tribute. However, at one point the chief of the El Dorado asks whether the gods want their tribute sent to Xibalba, which was the Mayan underworld (something the two Spaniards didn't know). What they also didn't know was that in order to send something to Xibalba, it was thrown into the whirlpool in the middle of a cenote (a sinkhole) to be sucked down into the abyss. So when the chief asks, "to Xibalba?" and the Spaniards enthusiastically agree "To Xibalba!", they are horrified to realize that they've just asked the chief to throw mountains of gold into the whirlpool, to be sucked down and lost forever.
Now, the point of this story is that last night, as Mark & I were eating dinner, Eric came racing through the kitchen, announced (as is his unbreakable habit) that he "hadda go poop!", and continued on his way to the bathroom. After a short while, I heard him announce loudly, "To Xibalba!!" followed by a flush. It took me a minute to realize why he'd done that. Then I all but snarfed my mashed potatoes. (I had to explain the joke to Mark, who hadn't seen the movie.)
In many ways, I am happy to send 2011 "to Xibalba" — so here is hoping that 2012 is better. It should be, given that 2011 was sent out with an appropriate tribute, while 2012 started with a hearty laugh.