New years go fast...

Eleven days into 2015 and what a ride its been so far!  We've ushered in the new year with houseguests, parties, snow days... snuggling in with friends and family and eating lots and lots of good food.  Time is flying by already this year, in a blur of dishes and laughter and it has been quite lovely really.  If a bit hard to keep up with. 

New Year's Eve day brought a visit to the Historical Society...

Thanks, Gram, for our membership!!

... and the destruction of the first of the vacant houses across the street.  Quite dramatic really-- out with the old, in with the new....  Nat spent every spare moment out watching and filming the excitement. Hard to believe its really gone.  

Later that day: Rockin' New Kids Eve... the tradition continues!  Melinda, as always, hosted a great party.  Kids played, adults ate lots of hors d'oeuvres, there were disco lights and glow sticks and even silly string. I remember back when it was New Toddler's Eve.  Toddlers no more, these giant children who play so well together, our extended Hiram family continuing on into the next generation...

Ivy and Jeffrey are too cute together...

Ivy is a fan of baby Maya!

Melinda even had party games organzied for us this year.  She is a amazing.  

It was a pretty rough party.  That sparkling cider, I tell ya!

We had the Perry boys spend the night after party number one, and Tiffany volunteered to stay home with the crew while the rest of us went to an actual New Year's Eve party, like real grown ups!  We ate more yummy food, got to see a friend's new house for the first time, saw people we haven't seen in years.  It brought back memories of this time in our lives, before kids, when staying out til 2 was no big thing...

Tina and Cassidy/

The Fisher brothers.

Kate and Marlee

Scott and jen!

New Year's Day... leisurely breakfast with friends, then a trip to a windy, cold lake.  Got to start off the year right, if the way you spend New Year's foretells the rest of the year... 

As we were about to leave, we had the unique experience of feeding a flock of seagulls, who gathered and balanced on the wind to take pieces of bread from our hands...

Jen moved in at our place on the 2nd and it was so wonderful to have my friend here, in and out but always around, almost able to take her for granted.  There are people in the world who never leave you, even when they aren't around, with whom you can slip back into friendship, easy as can be, picking up where you left off no matter how long ago.  Jen is one of those.  I just love her.

Fake Christmas Morning this year was one of the best eve, I think.  Jen with us,  Donna in town, Tony bringing his wonderful new lady friend and her kids... old friends, new friends, the best friends.  Our children running about and playing video games and being good as gold together while the conversation lingered over coffee and casseroles.  Most of the guests headed home around 2 but a core group stayed to drink more coffee, and Will and Nat spent several hours underneath our new table, and we researched the it's history from an old, disintegrating label, and Jen created soup and salad out of thin air and the remnants of food in our pantry and the after-party went on til 9pm.  

A fine way to spend a Saturday indeed...

Back to the real world on Monday, work and snow and cold all at once.  But the week maintained a bit of a vacation feel, with a weeknight trip to the art museum, and Jen around to keep us up too late watching strange animated movies.  Did I mention I love her?

Then, on Thursday... a snow day!  A cold day, actually, but a gift nonetheless. Time!  Time to sleep in, go to the gym, and have a date with my daughter at the museum, all before lunch.  Then, time to visit the City Greenhouse with a collection of favorite people.   And still  beyond that, time for dinner out at our favorite Thai restaurant, just the "girls", food and tea and laughter and just like that, 20 years erased and we were nineteen again and did I mention I love having Jen here?

This weekend has brought snow and cold-- and time for snuggles and sledding and Soup, too.  

These past few weeks have been so deliciously full of friends; I am surrounded and suffused with the love of all these remarkable people in my life.  How did I get so lucky?? I have to admit, though, that I am rather enjoying the quiet solitude of tonight, too.  

The world outside is blanketed with snow, a soft glow of white shining in.  The quiet interlude of January, now.  Time to breathe this New Year in...