New Year

When I was a little girl, my mom knew something about me before I knew it about myself:  I don't do well when I stay up late.  I was sort of a nightmare after a slumber party and my mom knew it.  

I don't stay up for New Year's Eve.  No one even expects it at this point.  When planning the evening, they talk about what they'll do "after Mom goes to bed."

I'm not even sorry.

As a result, I'm usually up hours before other people on New Year's Day.  I started hauling boxes up from the basement and I took the decorations off the living room tree.  I snapped a picture because it looked almost as pretty deconstructed as it did whole.

Adam was the first of the revelers to wake up.  He asked what he could do to help.  I said, "Feed me."  Later, I amended that I also needed him to move the heavy stuff.

He did that and also fed me well.  I didn't think we had any food for lunch (no creativity with food) and Adam made me a panini on a ciabatta with pesto, fresh mozzarella and kalamata olives.  He's a wonder.

Emma helped some with the big tree and she sorted candles and candle holders into a new system that isn't chaos and anarchy like it was before.  Then she took a small load to her new apartment that she is moving into.

That makes me happy/sad.  We will be empty nesters for real which seems so surprising but I don't know why.  It's like I ignored everyone around me becoming empty nesters (including my parents) for all those years.  The really great news is that I love being with Adam.  There's no one I'd rather have in my nest.

Mark helped with everything that required a ladder and helped me finish the big tree.  I threw away a handful of ornaments that no one claimed and I thought were kind of ugly (not to be confused with the ornaments I made in elementary school that are truly ugly but I will hang on my tree until my dying day).

While Adam was making a big and delectable chef salad for dinner (which is the perfect antidote for too many treats), I decided it was a good time to repot some of my plants in the kitchen.

What's a little tumult among friends?

Sunday morning was bitterly cold and I turned on the fire in our room and considered that 11:00 church couldn't happen to a nicer girl.

The transom window in my office was sparkling with frost and I was happy to stay inside a while.

I can't be too smug about it though.  I have recess duty today.  I'll just try to remember the new quote I put on my letter board:

It's a gluten-free quote because that's kind of our thing right now.