Happy New Year

Wow 2015!  Cliche to say this but I don't know how it is 2015 already... doesn't seem that long ago I was living in Cambridge and elaborately decorating our glittering dining table for the turn of the century dinner party we were hosting with neighbours- woohoo 2000!!  Married, no kids, two-storey house in the burbs, sunroof in my car, socking away lots of cash making scads of money in the tech sector in Waterloo... my how times change!  LOL

Cliche again but I find myself reflective this couple of days into the new year.  Quietly reflective, not exactly my usual yay-it's-a-new-start self.  

I love New Year's Eve, it is my favourite holiday of the year, right beside birthdays.  I love the celebration of life, of birth perhaps, new birth and fresh fallen snow... on goals and attitudes, fresh outlook and a new start. Everyone does I'm sure? 

Though many people I spoke with this year said nah it's just another night who cares I was sleeping by 9.  Blasphemy!  I just couldn't do that, no matter how tired I am I have to see the New Year in. That's just me though, and if you're near me at midnight on January 1 you will be sure to get an enthusiastic kiss and loud cheering and sparkling wine toasts and love for your presence in my vicinity - whether you like it or not! ;-)

Now we're done the toasting and the roasting, I am resting and recuperating. Lots of fun this holiday season, lots of kids, family, friends, lots of food and drink, and not much thinking about reality.  It was a lovely break, and I am pleased that I managed to make all the gatherings and events we had lined up. Scott's company party, saw our Milner family and our Lambe family, and were the benefactors of many gifts of food and laughter - thank you everyone! 

The girls got together and got me a very creative and thoughtful gift, a beautiful scarf bearing my favourite slogan "Peace & Love" with an additional thought-provoking message:

We all got a few treats for Christmas, and I have some pictures of our favourites, I even managed to get a photo of all five of us (the first one on record I think?) during our gift of a turkey feast from my dear family/friends in Toronto. Veselych Sviat! xoxoxo

Spa day gift from a friend, Moms with matching toes 

and daughters with fancy foil manis! :-)

My new discovery, cinnamon tequila, a lovely replacement for the 

famed anti-freeze-containing Fireball...yummmm:

The girls' gingerbread house, short life it had but oooh tasty! :-)

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to our fabulous holiday in deed or gift, from Bill's valu-mart to McGuinty's Cafe and Simply Unique Flowers & Gifts, from Scotiabank to the Post Office, and all the way to Solitudes Day Spa - from my family to all of yours a sincere and heartfelt thank you for everything!  We cannot thank our community enough for all of the support you have given us. 

Thanks also for all of the wonderful wishes in cards, texts, emails  - among all of the well-wishes I gave and received for a happy and healthy new year, one of my faves was a wish for a "surgery-free 2015!"  LOL I am still chuckling over that and yes thank you I too am hoping for a surgery-free 2015. For myself, and for all of my wonderful friends and family. 

Back to the grind on Monday for all of us in a way, kids back to school (can you hear the grrrooans in the background?), Scott back to work, me back to appointments and back to serious consideration of how to handle everything now that it is a new year.  How to cope with my current recovery from 2014 health events and how to prepare for further medical therapies in January and February.  How to get back to feeling tip-top and prepare for the idea of going back to work at some point?  How to not panic that I am approaching the one-year mark since my melanoma diagnosis? And how to be grateful that it is just the beginning of the rest of my life, and I will just have to continue taking it one day at a time, as I have always done.  

Happy New Year everyone, and Thank You, 

Love...

 

(Claire received cake decorating supplies for Christmas so... 

let us eat cake!) :-)