Happy New Year!

Welcome 2012!  Your arrival seems to have come at some super sonic warp speed, but you are here and we are ready. I think.  I'm not really one to make resolutions.  At least not just once a year.  It's more a monthly, weekly, daily sort of thing for me...I will be more organized today, will remember the birthdays of friends this month AND get cards in the mail, will try to keep the house a little tidier, will not sweat the small stuff, will put photos in albums, will write in my journal, will work out, spend less time online, stick to the budget....you get the idea.

{my boys + nephew, carter, on christmas eve at my parent's}

The end of 2011 was lovely. It was a darn near perfect Christmas for our little family.  One of those Jimmy and I will look back on when we reminisce about the boys being little.  The way they sat together with their PJ covered, outstretched legs, in the upstairs hallway, opening their advent calendars to start each day; their joint morning search + giggles to find our incredibly mischievous elf; the homemade gifts we opened Christmas morning that their hands created in school; Charlie singing "Jingle Bell Rock" in the kitchen, the car, out in public each time it came on the radio {"my song, my song"}; Andrew patiently and lovingly teaching his little brother the wonder and joy of Christmas.  More than once I caught myself with that tightening in the back of my throat as I swallowed back tears of happiness. We enjoyed each other so much this year.

{mum and her buche de noel which deserves to be on a magazine cover!}

{me, my mum, and my brother, kevin}

We rang in 2012 with a cozy fireside dinner.  {the dining table was a temporary Lego construction zone}.  We ate a small pork roast, an herb and scallion bread pudding, and green beans with shallots.  For dessert, a rather scrumptious chocolate cake.   I could have skipped dinner and just had cake,  I think my boys felt the same!  After Charlie went to bed we played board games till midnight and let Andrew watch the ball drop for the first time.  At midnight I was kissed by two boys.

Today all the decorations came down and the house feels a little lonely and bare. I always hate to see them go, especially with a long, dreary winter still stretched out before us.

So, may this be the happy, happy, happiest of New Years for all of you!!! Did you do something special to celebrate the start of 2012? I'm looking forward to some serious blog catch up with all of you this week!! Cheers!!

And one more picture that cracks me up.... A little reminder that my example is likely a far bigger influence than my words, so I better model what I want to see!! Ah, there's my New Year's resolution!