Farewell 2007!

Welcome to Monday and the last day of 2007.

While most people are taking their Christmas decorations down, I am sprucing mine up. I love to celebrate with a last hurrah to ring in the New Year before we put everything away until the next holiday season.

It just tickles me to hang twirly streamers and metallic curling ribbon all over the house. We have several lighted table-top decorations and a big "Happy New Year" banner, that makes the house look extra special. Finally, I add sparkly curls, New Year party hats, and horns to our already beautiful Christmas tree.

Dave and I have plans to go out for dinner and then dancing. So even though we will not be having a party at home, Mason and Melody (his sitter) will be here having pizza, snacks, and sparkling cider in glass champagne flutes. Yes, Real glass! He is so excited to be having a party that is just for him, and decorating the house, makes it that much more meaningful.

Let me wish you a Happy New year and leave you with a beautiful writing from a beautiful book, Simple Abundance:

Chill something bubbly. Honor the Old Year with a farewell toast, welcome the New Year within. Offer thanks. Celebrate how far you've come, how much you've learned, and the glorious person you really are.

A Christmas Miracle

It is not very often an individual can claim they experienced a true Christmas miracle. Dave did this Christmas.

If you recall my December 12 entry, The Meaning of the Ornament, I told you the story of Dave's lost box of ornaments. The box contained ornaments dating all the way back to his first Christmas. Interestingly, on December 23rd, the box was found and returned to Dave.

Does this qualify as a true miracle? Maybe not in the sense of life and death, but certainly in the sense of regaining a piece of personal history. I believe another factor that makes this so meaningful, is that Dave is adopted. As an adoptee, there is already an innate sense of missing pieces to your life's puzzle. To lose the pieces you once possessed, it is just a little more difficult to accept.

So as we head toward the start of a new year, we will move forward with the belief that things are exactly as they are supposed to be, and that Christmas miracles are real.

Countdown to the New Year!

Is there a night more filled with sparkle and promise than New Years Eve? I don't think so.

I love looking forward to December 31st. As of this writing, I don't have any plans, but I have called a sitter, and have made arrangements to be out celebrating the promise of all the coming new year holds with my handsome husband.

New Year's Eve celebrations bow to both the sacred and the secular. The holiday has evolved into a rather elegant, if not indulgent evening for grown-ups. Ladies can wear their fanciest dresses, and men can turn out in their tuxes. The night is dressed in glitter and glitz; everything sparkles, from bubbles in a fluted glass, to the famous ball that falls on Times Square. Even without plans, I am excited by what we will wear, where we will go, and how sweet our kiss will be at midnight.

Now, keep in mind, I am 41 years old. I am well aware that things may not turn out the way I fantasize they will. It could be that we have no firm plans, end up having dinner that is ordinary, and ring in the new year in a dive bar. Even if that winds up being the case, I am going to hold on to my high hopes until the time I crawl into bed for the first time in 2008!

This Christmas

This Christmas mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Write a love letter. Share some treasure. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Keep a promise. Find the time. Forgive an enemy. Listen. Apologize if you were wrong. Think first of someone else. Be kind and gentle. Laugh a little. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it still once again.

Anonymous

Riley's Christmas

My Riley is as much a member of our family as any of us people. Dave bought Riley for me for my birthday in 2002 and from that day forward, Riley has been my "first best boy."

There are lots of things I love about my Riley, but one of the things I love the most is how he loves Christmas as much as we do. You might be wondering how I know he loves Christmas. I know because of the way he stares at the lights on the tree, and the way he will position himself in my photos vying for that oh-so-important place on the family Christmas card. But the thing that makes me the most sure of myself is the way he checks his stocking each and every day before Christmas morning.

Everyone in the family has a Christmas stocking, including Riley. His hangs on a support beam that you see as soon as you walk in the front door. It is all white and he knows it is his. He gets up on his hind legs every day to see if it has been filled. On Christmas morning, as we all follow Mason out to the living room to see what Santa has left under the tree, Riley is jumping up and down, pawing at this stocking. When I take it down for him, we sit on the step and he pulls each item out, one by one. After everything has been opened and he has checked out what other gifts have been received, he will sit with his pile of toys, playing with each one. Yes, without a doubt, Riley is as much my child, anticipating and loving Christmas as Mason is. This I know.

Christmas Pictures

We are less than a week away from Christmas and cameras are snapping, flashing, and popping everywhere. From trying to get the perfect Christmas card, to the annual family Christmas portrait, we are smiling left and right.

In our family, not all of our pictures show happy, smiling faces. In fact, we enjoy expressing ourselves no matter how we feel, and if it gets caught on film, all the better. With the full range of emotions that we as humans feel, why not use them all more often.

This year, we have a beautiful picture of Mason hugging Santa on our Christmas card (I'll show you that one in the next few weeks), but in the album, we have all kinds of other faces. This one is the picture of Mason telling me he did not want to smile anymore while decorating the tree. Okay. What can I say? I can't make the kid smile just because I want an angelic picture. Not to mention, he is far from an Angel. In reality, the rebellious pictures tell the truer story. They tell the story of the whole human, not just the happy human. Have a great day, and feel whatever you feel like feeling!

Happy Birthday!

Today is my birthday and I must be growing up. Having a December birthday is great, but unless it is set up properly from the very beginning, it can be a bummer (I've been told). I am very lucky in this regard as my mom made it a point to differentiate my birthday from Christmas. I never get a combination gift and my birthday presents are never wrapped in Christmas paper.

In years past, my birthday was a month-long event. I would start counting down the days the first of December, and I celebrated everyday as if it were the 17th. My coworkers, business associates, friends, relatives and even total strangers were informed that I was celebrating my birthday-month. Of course, there would be a party. It might be dinner with friends, or a full blown, "all hours of the night" bash to bring everyone together, sometimes both! Whatever the case may have been, it was a pretty self-indulgent time.

The last several years have been quite the opposite. My birthdays have become a day in a month. I think about my birthday in terms of my past accomplishments and how much more I still have to do. I look in the mirror and see a woman who cares so much more for others than she does for herself, and I like that. This is just to say I have a life that is stimulating and full with the love of a husband and child, our animals, great friends, and all the opportunity in the world. I have realized that I am the least interesting, and life is so much better lived being interested.

I'm not sorry I spent so much time being into me. I think it lends my best years to giving to others, and that feels great. Today is my birthday and I will celebrate being older without being old. Now I have to get Mason off to school, meet with the trainer to run in the rain, finish my Christmas cookie gifts, volunteer at Mason's school for two hours, and Dave said I have to pick up the dog poop in the back yard. Yep, it's my birthday! Laughing!

"Youth is a circumstance you can't do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old." Frank Lloyd Wright