New Year

We ring in the New Year the best way we know how, with a big stack of Grandpa's pancakes and a steaming mug full of coffee.  I'm snuggling the newest family member, for once not one of mine, while Aunt Amanda fills cups with orange juice and sets them in front of hungry little people all around the big kitchen table.  The New Year is begun as it should, with a firm foundation of family, love, warmth, joy and celebration.

A random midwinter thaw sees us stomping through the backyard turned swamp on this balmy morning, and all my cautioning that Winter is sure to come back cannot put a damper on the pure glee at pulling out bikes and scooters.  Neighborhood kids and my big ones pull on mud caked boots and run out in the warm air.  Even I am seduced by the warm promise of Spring and open a few windows, a mid winter airing just the thing for this fresh first day.

This year is an odd year, which means by Summer's end I will have a bunch of even numbered children - 8,6,4,2,and a sweet little 0.  Husband turns 30.  Only I, the odd man out with my even-yeared birth, will be at odds this year.  The amazing thing is that although there are things I know will come to pass, years are shaped by the unknown becoming known.  The biggest events of 2011 are the things I am unable to fathom.

Warm thaw flavored air blows through my kitchen and I'm standing here looking out and wondering who will be standing here next year - what events will change me and grow me over the next 365.  Its an odd sort of comfort to me that I am just as I need to be, not the director of this play but willing participant in whatever comes along.

Wishing you and yours all of the best in 2011!