Bits of December

I'm going to back-track a bit and start trying to catch up on the days and days and days...We were trying to remember something the other day and I turned to this blog to confirm and thought, shoot we are up a creek if we're hoping for any kind of record of 2016! 

What does it mean that I begin such a post with photos of kimchi in the making? Hm...Amidst the busy, appreciating the small details, like a brilliantly purple daikon radish.

We managed to have several game nights with our friends who are back for a few months from Maine. Gotta pack it in while they're here. The favorites right now are Codenames and Dixit.

Anything that can produce a laugh like this is a game I want to play again and again...

Mama and daughter 💚

The month was about wrapping up activities - Doctor Who history for Eliza (in her usual position on the futon, in pajamas, with Charlie mashed up as close as he can get), fiddle lessons, dance classes.

Sleepovers with besties

Fiddle orchestra!! I see you!!

The morning after Eliza's fiddle concert, we drove to New York City and landed at the home of the woman who married us sixteen years ago. Ah, to picking up the weaving of lives together...it's been nine years, but who would know? More on that trip in another post. 

Instant kinship

January feels like a little bit of a lull between the outer galaxy of December and the resumption of Normal. Time to find the threads that you want to pick up and to clean out what you would rather stay behind. I am trying to be present to that in my days; December felt like a bit too much for me, and I noticed that I worked hard at staying busy with my hands and making lists in my head and on paper, in an attempt to not be still and feel how incongruous the cheer-making of the season felt to me, in the mess that is the world right now.  Sometimes the cheer works its magic and lightens the horizon for me, but I felt rushed this year to Get There, and never really caught up to the light. I'm giving myself January to find my footing, gather strength and see where I am. Taking stock through catching up will hopefully feel like fortifying the ground underneath me, remind me of the brilliant light that accompanies my days, whether or not I notice.