fresh and new
We quietly celebrated New Year's Eve just how I like it, with feast and purpose, gratitude and hope. Us, together...and some bubbly beverages. I felt the coming of the New Year with the experience of this last one in mind- dreams come true and profound realizations. I know so much can change in a year. Oh, what we've done and how we've grown, and all in ways we didn't expect.
Our Christmas festivities were much like our New Year's celebration...quiet and purposeful, with some bubbly beverages. I stepped away from some of the traditions I usually keep, namely decorating our tree with all of our vintage ornaments (in an effort to save them from our kittens). As much as I adore them, Ruby Sweet and Figgy have destroyed most everything I treasure, including my computer, balls of much needed yarn, felted treasures, and various other things over the last six months. And so we set out to adorn our tree in homemade decorations and ornaments foraged from the land around us. With boughs of laurel and holly, candied orange slices, shells, lichen, gingerbread hearts, and paper chains, our little Fraser Fir turned out to be one of my most treasured Christmas trees ever. We crafted our decorations as a family and it was, in fact, a lovely accompaniment to Advent- more of the slow and purposeful tasks that take us out of holiday mayhem and into ourselves. Boughs clipped from the tree were hung from the old wood beams of this house, and doorways were decorated in rosehips and salal. I will forever remember this Christmas and the sweet combination of fir needles and woodsmoke in the air.
This morning we awoke to the most beautiful hoar frost; a little dusting of magic to begin the year! Later in the morning we walked the beach in the sunshine and I gathered more shells. Over the holidays I've tried to steal away little moments to myself...kindling my own inner light. I thought about this today, and with some more big changes headed our way again this year I feel the need to pay a little more attention to these things. This is my intention for 2013, to be mindful of the important tasks of renewing one's spirit and refreshing one's inspiration. That, and filling up my family with as much love and grace as I can muster.
Blessings to all of you on this first evening of this year! I hope 2013 is off to a joyous and adventurous beginning closely celebrated with those you love! I'm looking forward to sharing with you another year in the life of this little Elliott clan- troublemaking kittens and all!
