Sunday, December 31, 2017

At the End of the Year

It's December 31st and fireworks are going off outside as I write.
Just a week ago tonight, I was watching snow falling magically outside the front window, late on Christmas Eve. 
The kids were asleep and the house was peaceful. 
I went out after midnight and stood in it for a few minutes, just listening and watching.

I'd been awake early that morning making orange rolls.
Ralph brought me over almond extract and lemon juice before 8 a.m.
Mia and Isaiah came upstairs, the tree was aglow, and Russian tea (recipe here) was simmering on the stove.
It smelled like Christmas and we all listened, expectantly, for that first lone voice singing the first verse of
At that moment, Christmas begins at our house.
The Rudolphs came for breakfast, and Kurt, Heidi, Goldie, and Moses.
My brother Brian and I had Christmas fettuccine later for dinner.

The kitchen smelled festive on the 23rd as well.
Mia and I were rolling out gingerbread dough, cutting out the pieces for the kids' houses, and the 
house was tight and warm and filled with the smell of ginger and cinnamon and cloves. 
It made me happy.

Later in the afternoon we put them together before snuggling up to watch "The Family Stone".
That night, the decorating went down once Claire and the boys came home.

And on Christmas morning? 
The world was white outside and it was beautiful. The kids opened stockings and presents, we listened to carols,
I put on my new pajamas from my sister and made roll dough again and kept putting logs on the fire.
You could hear the sound of a snowblower and we looked outside to see our neighbor plowing the front walks and our driveway too. Bless him.
We gathered with my family later in the day, like we always do on Christmas: delicious food, the best company, cracking up and playing games and eating pie.
And then, in just a minute, it's all over and here we are:
it's the night before the new year.

In the morning I'll be taking the ornaments off the branches, putting stuff back up in the attic, and preparing New Year's dinner so we can start the year off with bubbly and sparklers.
In the last few minutes of this year, I'm going to savor the lights on my Christmas tree one more time and then have the kids get ready to run outside at twelve to bang on pots and pans and shout "Happy New Year!" into the dark sky.

2017 was good to us.
I hope she was good to you too.

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