The New Year Begun

It is January. All things are new with opportunities for change and improvement ahead. In Seattle that means it is wet and gray but this year we are thankful for the warm winter weather, not wanting to match the freezing hand and toes around the country.

The holidays are over which always leaves a little empty feeling inside me as well as the challenge to fill it with new projects and new connections. This holiday was especially enjoyable though I suspect I say that every year. We had lots of family celebration with cooking, eating, drinking lots of wine and walking on "thin ice", literally. The cold weather in Idaho gave us the gift of a frozen lake to explore. The snow was light- just enough to be a beautiful frosting on the trees- and the ice fishermen assured us the ice was 8 inches thick...but it kept groaning and cracking when we walked! I am NOT at ease on the frozen water! Still, it was extraordinary and beautiful and fun. Being together with generations of family is really the best of all holiday experiences. It means laughter over the past and present, as well as craziness with people being pushed to the edge of reason....and we keep doing it every year.

With everyone arriving from the four corners, we made time to be together again at Kyrsa's making the holiday seem really luxurious. One of the most memorable and fun parts of the holiday was being the "top chef" with my cooking crew of Susan, Colin and Erin who were the best sous-chefs ever.

Colin and Susan were able to be in Kingston to be part of the daily ease of holiday vacation which made me really sad to loose their companionship and their help in the kitchen. Erin (you may know her as fresh summer breeze) had an entire week plus so that gave us time to see friends and shop and pretend there was all the time in the world to play. The Christmas holiday really is the only reason I can look forward to winter. When it is over, I begin to look forward to Spring and plan to garden projects for the "real time".

Now onward to planning, creating the gardening in the year of the Rooster- my year! Did you know the Chinese only get their year every 12 years! You can't survive on a good year every 12 years! So I am expecting a year of miracles for everyone this year. A new decade with lots of new challenges that make us smile and sing (not the kind that make us "grow"). Happy Miracles in the New Year and happy moments too.