Sean had just moved to Colorado Springs, Jim and I had just moved to Lincoln, and Elizabeth was still in Lawrence in the Autumn of 2013. We went to Colorado for a family weekend before Jim started his first round of treatments. We hiked, of course, and I forced them into a family photo. So glad I did.
Jim was the Christmas card king! He liked getting them. He liked sending them. If you got a card from us it was most likely his doing. I designed them, but he did everything else. Including keeping records of who sent cards to us so he could reciprocate and updating our address book when that was necessary. He looked forward every year to creating his Christmas Letter! My job was to edit it down to one page! Ha! We are not so fascinatingly a family that our friends eagerly await a novel about our comings and goings each Christmas.
This year I did not send any cards. I didn’t have the heart for it. I appreciate the cards I received. It seemed pretty pointless to send out a letter about our year. I do wish you well though and hope you had a good holiday. I’m not a complete Humbug!
And I wish you the best in 2023. We all deserve a better year.
I didn’t make any “resolutions.” I have some goals in mind, but they are not serious enough to even jot down.
The year I turned 60 I made a determination to say yes, to celebrate everyday as it came my way. What I wrote then I will attempt to reinvasion for this year.
“Jan. 2, 2012. Where did the time go? It seems more precious now than ever before.
Therefore, my resolution, as some of you well know, is to celebrate my 60th Birthday every day for this entire year! Now I do not need a party with cake and candles or a flagon of champagne to make my daily celebration complete. But I do invite you to celebrate with me.
I expect to find simple ways to celebrate each day; a walk in the park with my husband, dinner with my family, quiet time with a good book on the deck, creating a new garden in the back yard to name a few.
I don’t actually expect my days to change an awful lot. What I do intend to do is to find the celebration in all the simple joys I already share with my friends and family.
Don’t get me wrong, if a bottle of wine and a good dinner happen along I won’t turn them down, but they must be accompanied by friendship and laughter. That is an absolute rule.
If it is a quiet night at home by myself there will be celebration in solitude and reflection in that also.
We are on the last third my friends. It feels to me as though there is something special in that needs to be addressed, listened to and celebrated. I know I still have a lot of learning and growing to do so I had better get started hadn’t I? Oddly enough I am very much looking forward to this last third! So now that it is here I had better take the opportunity to sit up and pay attention!”