Happy New Year!

Wishing you

Vintage Card from: http://vintageholidaycrafts.com

A New Year Begins

Year after year I sit down and map out my goals for the year.  I love New Years, the clean slate, the spirit of renewal, even the sense of "no-more-procrastinating" that comes with it. My goals are personal and I keep them private (except that my daughters and I go over our lists with each another -- it's part of the fun!), so I won't post them here, but I'm inspired to move forward with them.  Without realizing it, it dawned on me that I'd been working on the Fruits of the Spirit over the last few years  One year I worked on adding Joy into my life, another year Kindness.  This year I made a conscious decision to have Self-Control as my theme word.

Tomorrow is the last day of my Christmas vacation. This Christmas was "different."  Perhaps it was because my girls and I were not able to participate in many of the pre-Christmas traditions with their living in the city and having busy work schedules.  Then, of course, Frosty's injury has been all-consuming.  He has had a round of vet visits, infections, med changes and another surgery, but I think he is finally out of the woods.  (I could write a book about what we've been through with all of that, but I'll save it for another time.)

Poor Frosty -- another surgery on January 2nd -- but this should do the trick!

But what we didn't get to do before Christmas, we did after Christmas!  Last Friday, Ash was in town and we went out for shopping, lunch, and to see "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." We really enjoyed it and decided the trailer doesn't do it justice.

The next day I drove up to San Francisco and Lys and I spent a fabulous day together there!  We went to the Hyatt for lunch, where it snowed (okay, fake man-made snow) in the lobby.

 

We then walked past the ice skating rink...

 ... to the historical Ferry Building! This is the architecture that helped the building survive

 the Great Earthquake of 1906.

It still serves the ferries for the Bay area, but also hosts many restaurants and shops, such as this unique "Far West Fungi" (mushroom) shop, decorated for Christmas.

We went outside and watched the ferries come and go and the view of the double-decker Bay Bridge, just enjoying the beautiful California weather. We had a wonderful day and evening together! 

Sunday I went to a holiday party in Pebble Beach.  My husband and I lived there for a couple of years and I still miss the ocean view and deer.  I snapped this picture on the road that we lived on, with the golf course behind our house.  I would wait until the golfers finished for the day and then every afternoon I walked the 1.5 miles to the beach and back.  It is one of my fondest memories.  I would see deer grazing, little red foxes running under logs, and then sat on a big piece of driftwood and watched the waves roll in before turning around and heading back home.  It is what made a walker out of me! 

My friend and her husband had invited several of us for "wine and canapes," but they had enough delicious food for a feast!  They had Christmas trees in almost every room, each with a different theme, creating a most enchanting setting.

So all's well that ends well!  Happy New Year!

Bonne Annee!

 

Wishing you all a healthy, happy new year!  I love New Year's Day -- a time for new beginnings, fresh starts, reflecting on progress made (even if I didn't keep ALL of my resolutions last year, I made a dent in most of them), making plans.  I believe New Year's Resolutions should be fun!  So yes, a little of the "lose weight," "save more" stuff -- but my list includes goals related to:

Creativity

Traveling someplace new and interesting

Participating in meaningful causes

Spending quality time with Family and Friends

Enriching my spiritual life

Embracing my health 

Embellish my nest (home decor)

Ayez une année joyeuse nouvelle!  Have a JOYOUS new year!

Happy New Year!

Wishing all my friends and family a very happy, positive,  joyful New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's New Year's Day -- do you know where your resolutions are? This is one of my favorite days of the year! I love fresh starts, making plans, moving forward. My resolution list is still a work in progress. I reviewed my resolutions from last year and realized I only hit a couple of them ~ so I tried to figure out how to re-word those I didn't achieve. Ash and Lys told me that I can't trick myself that way -- saying I want to lose weight by any other name is simply, well, lose weight. However, as we discussed this resolution list concept (while in the car between dinner at Olive Garden and the movie theater we had arrived at much too early last night), we concluded that it doesn't work to say you are going to exercise every day -- if you can't for some reason, you don't want to feel you've broken your resolution. Someone finally suggested that it should be "learn to love exercise". Now that is a concept. Learn to love exercise, love eating healthy foods, love drinking lots of water, love passing up dessert because of the feeling of self-respect..... Hmmm. Might be on to something here. And for those who don't make new year's resolutions -- bah humbug. What a missed opportunity to examine's one life and determine areas where we might be able to set some goals, make a fresh start, improve ourselves.


We had a cozy New Year's Eve. I know the day is coming when my now college-aged girls will have moved away and will celebrate with their friends, but for now they kindly still include Mom in the picture. We saw the movie Benjamin Button which was quite an odd movie. I enjoyed the movie Doubt that Ash and I saw on Monday much more. Anyway, we came home in time to catch some TV specials and watch the big ball drop in New York. I'm optimistic about 2009.

Christmas was nice. Ash is home from college for another week and a half. I had to take my dad back to the airport on Sunday, but we always enjoy his company Christmas week. I bought the girls a wii for Christmas and we have all enjoyed our golf, bowling, and boxing tournaments.

Wishing you a happy New Year!