Happy New Year!!!

What a special Christmas it has been; from the tiny alligator that hides in my Christmas Village, to the cards from loved ones all over the country taped to my entry wall, I have enjoyed this year more than usual.  My goal to succumb less to the stress and to enjoy my children more helped it to be a gentler season.  I sit here in the afterglow, a warm crackling fire in the hearth, Guy snoozing on the couch beside me, Ethan doing the same in the other room, Adam coaxing giggles from Jonah and the girls painting in the kitchen. Though things aren't perfect -the sink is full of dirty dishes and the car has a dead battery -the saying "all is well with the world" applies to this moment, for the moment. 

And here are some of the peaceful moments I will enjoy remembering in the months and years to come.

Homemade gifts from my garden

 Auntie Joyce, who has no children of her own, opens Ethan's gift; an "Ethan Original" photograph

Hand sewn gifts for our friends... Mouse by Ellie, Heart by Tessa, and Cat by Adam, all for Auntie Joyce

Breakfast with Joyce...

With two rounds of hot cocoa... yum

Loves from Francine

Mama firing pottery in the fireplace.  Guy and I did not buy gifts for each other this year.  I made him some pottery and recorded his favorite song for him... "At Last".  He promises me he will get to unfinished projects for my gift.

Christmas Eve with new friends, the Bush family

And my favorite tradition, Guy and I trade handmade ornaments on Christmas Eve

The first gifts of Christmas... new jammies for all

Visions of sugarplums dancing in wee little heads

Christmas morning...

"Can we come out now???"

Our first "Paper-Free" Christmas... all presents this year were wrapped in cloth.  Our Christmas carbon-footprint reduced to the size of one piece of coal.

Who could have beleived that four month old Jonah would be so interested in presents?

Christmas dinner with loved ones...

.... and friends; David and Peggy

        Please pass the mashed potatos!

This is the year Jonah will learn to walk.  The year Tessa will start kindergarten.  This year Ethan will begin high school and go to his first dance.  There will be joys yet unimagined and sorrows unwelcomed, but just as in every year before, they will come.  This year, for the first time in a few years, I intend to write our family time capsule.  It will be sealed up and packed with the ornaments, to be opened on Christmas Eve next year.  It will recount the year that is past and list hopes for the year ahead.

May it be a year as blessed as this one has been.