One of my more serious goals for 2008 is to retain the prestigious title of "cool aunt" in the family.

It is not as simple as it sounds.

Cool aunts must have physical strength, an ability to pass on new and exciting phrases, and an understanding of the child's language, which sounds vaguely of "Whine, whine? Whine, whine!"

The cool aunt takes a child to cool places to do cool things.

Most importantly, the cool aunt always has a supply of candy on hand.

With the birth of my second nephew in November and my first nephew's fourth birthday approaching in April, it is essential I keep my cool. After all, it will be easier for me to maintain my awesome image later if they believe I am great early on.

I have given my 3-year-old nephew piggyback rides, horseback rides and opportunities to dangle upside down. In an attempt to seal my status as the Most Awesome Aunt Who Ever Did Live, I took him to see Santa Claus. It was his first time seeing Santa. It was my first time taking him alone in public. Even with no one there to help me, I thought naively, "This will be easy."

Little did I realize, standing in line for an hour is no simple task for a toddler. We made it through a seemingly eternal purgatory of squirming, floor crawling, and attempts to run amok in the mall, all the way to Santa's lap.

I purchased for him that night a Happy Meal and hot cocoa with strawberry syrup, as per his request.

He also ate all of my sour neon gummy worms. Sigh.

At the end of the night, as he reminisced through the list of aunts in his life, surely he stopped at my name and thought, "Auntie Chrystal is the Coolest Aunt Who Ever Did Live."

If not, well … there's always the Easter Bunny.

Chrystal Doucette is the Health and Education Reporter for the Columbia Basin Herald. The coolest aunt in her life is her Aunt Dawn. But don't tell the other aunts.