Hello and welcome to the first Ellen DeGeneres Newsletter of the year 2004.

Feels different doesn’t it? Everything changes with a new year. Everything…like…well, like writing checks. Now we’ve got to write 2004 instead of 2003. It’s not always easy to remember. I just stopped thinking it was 2002 last November.

The celebrating never really ends. There are already some very important holidays coming up in early January. Did you know that January 4th is National Trivia Day? Well it is, and you just observed it by learning that little tidbit.

Another terrific and easy holiday to observe is January 5th: National Bird Day. It’s a day I like to get outside and appreciate birds. I look at them, listen to them, talk to them, and knit them tiny little scarves—anything to make them feel special, they deserve it after all, they’re so pretty. By the way, January 28th is National Kazoo Day, but don’t try to combine holidays and play your kazoo to a bird on National Bird Day. They won’t appreciate it. Trust me on this one.

Bringing lesser-known holidays back to daytime,

Ellen