If I eyeball 2013, there is a curve, and I can't see round the bend. Each time I try to sit and write I get distracted. Blogs to read! Facebook! Post holiday online sales!
The Captain bought me a ChromeBook for Christmas to facilitate my writing. He is my technology pusher, nudging me beyond my comfort zone. I used to be all pen and paper and landlines and bit by bit he has pushed me. First it was this blog (His idea. I said, "aren't blogs just for self absorbed over-sharers? Get a journal!" the way you'd yell "get a room!"), then came the picture phone ("if I want to take a picture, I can just use my camera!"), then a smartphone, then a reader on my phone, and now I'm writing on a laptop listening to Pandora, and learning how to embed video links. Where will it stop? Bionic occular implants? I just don't know!
Anyway...
Our holidays have been amazing. Fantastic. Spectacular. Everything I dreamed they would be.
There was the road trip to Melbourne and reconnecting with heart-friends there. Christmas day found us by the pool with shrimps on the barbie, the kids alternated swimming and eating. The rest of us just kept up a pretty steady graze without bouts of exercise. A real highlight was a spontaneous call to Small Sun's first mom and their resulting conversation.
Boxing Day was picture perfect at Bell's Beach on the Great Ocean Road. I explored rock pools with Sprout, rocked a hysterical B to calm while watching ocean swells, and enjoyed a full day in the sun with the immensely blue Australian sky smiling down in adoration.
New Years Eve found us back in Sydney at our favorite location for the fireworks. We gathered with friends at Clarke's Point and stayed for the 9pm Family Fireworks and the 12pm show extraordinaire! They were truly breathtaking!
New Year's Day we gathered with dear friends for a pool party and for once the water was actually warm enough that I wanted to swim! My favorite thing was watching Finch bask in his newly discovered (from the bowels of the garage) float. He lay with his cheek on the warm plastic, entirely content for hours on end. Watching him, I could remember that feeling - the heat of the sun, the distant noise of the kids in the pool as your eyes drift open and closed, and the occasional cold splash startling you from your reverie.
The holidays have been everything I had hoped for.
Now the house is quiet, and I am the last one up sitting by the glowing Christmas tree. I am taking one last loving look around at the house decorated for Christmas. Tomorrow I'll pull out the boxes and start putting the sparkle and the flash and the holiday books and the cookie cutters away. I'm glad that here in Australia we are still celebrating summer, even after the holidays have passed.
When I look down the road of 2013, there is a curve and I can't see around the bend, so tonight I will just look at the twinkle lights, instead.
You are an artist with your keypad, and you have just created a piece of art so vivid I feel I am there in the happy warmth of the twinkle lights with you. Thank you for this lovely post. Living in the present, fully absorbing the moment without having to peer past it, can be one of life's greatest graces. Happy New Year!
Posted by: Peggy Fitzpatrick | 11 January 2013 at 02:37 AM