NEW YEAR'S EVE

I apologize in advance for the photo dump that is about to happen here, but most of them has a baby in it, if that assuages anything. As I write this, the temperature outside is slowly rising to a high of 64, and the weather folk says that it is going to be in the 70s this weekend, but I swear it is still January, right? And if my mind is kind and serves me well, the holidays just happened.

As much as I don’t like the cold and do not like snow (yes, I repeat, I do not like snow), since I had a formative, picturesque and nostalgia-inducing childhood in New Jersey, where it snowed in the truckfuls, Christmas doesn’t quite feel like itself without snow. I find myself wondering if I want Sloane to associate Christmas with snow, like I did, and have that fuzzy feeling of Christmasyness which involves holly, the smell of fir trees, wood, snowmen and snow angels – which is all so nice. But then I decide that no, it’s definitely not necessary, and it’s most important to me that she associate the holidays with family, gratitude, and the traditions that we make for ourselves to give thanks.

Having this baby girl makes me appreciate family even more than ever, and I am still giddy over the fact that my parents can be here for almost a month. They live in Seoul, South Korea, so it’s extra special that they are able to visit for a longer period than usual. They got here the night of Christmas, and so did my sister, her fiancé, Val, and my cousin, Lois. They were still here while we hopped (I mean, crawled) over to NYC for a couple of days, and when we got back, we celebrated New Year’s Eve and Day together with dinner, champagne, family worship, and some games. We missed my other sister and her fellow, but it felt full and I do love having our house full of family. Here are some photos from New Year’s Eve: ...