new year

As the year rolled over from 2012 to 2013, I was peeling a winter coat from Amelia's jammied body and slipping her between blankets in her bed.  Or I was hauling a laundry basket packed with snowpants, hats, camera, hot chocolate thermos, baby dolls, etc. through the thin-single-digit air from the trunk of my subaru into our woodstove-warmed kitchen.  Or I was letting the dog out then in, feeding the cat, turning on lights, soaking dishes in the sink, and picking up piles of original artwork and crayons from the floor.  To be honest, I'm not completely sure what I was doing when the clock struck midnight this year.
my last photo of 2012

As I stopped moving and surveyed our slightly less messy kitchen, and Mike stood up from feeding a log to the woodstove, we looked at each other, looked at the clock, looked back at each other.  It was 12:07am.  We laughed.  And crawled into bed.

Our little family has had a very full fall.  Between Amelia starting kindergarten, Aven spending mornings in preschool, and me taking on a full load of education classes (p.s. straight-A's, my friends!) our days have been pretty tightly scheduled.  And what I really needed to recover from that, was exactly what the last few weeks delivered.  Slow mornings with coffee and books.  Ice skating on the frozen river at Bannack Ghost Town, skiing at our little local hill, and soaking in (both!) the natural hotsprings within an hour's drive of our front door. Days like these feed my soul in a way I can't even describe.
Taking a deep satisfied breath as the year ends, and looking ahead, ready to rock the pants off 2013, is a good feeling. It's kind of like eating a s'more next to a crackling fire after sledding and ice skating all afternoon, surrounded by friends and family as the sun goes down.

It's kinda like that.