And so it begins....

2006 is over and we sent it out with a bang by heading to the valley to spend a couple of days with friends. We hung out with Dennis and Emily for awhile then trucked to Karen's place where we spent the night. The kids were thrilled to be together and we adults sat in front of the fire playing name that tune from a random mix of songs. Most entertaining I assure you! Hot wings were brought out and as we burned our mouths off we rang in the new year all together. Like we always used to. It felt good to be "home". After the kids went to bed, we sat around talking 'til almost two.

Morning came and the food started cooking....instead of everyone driving to the city this year Nancy and Mike had everyone at their place. Karen and I got ourselves organized making soup and rolls and a roast to take over at the appropriate time, then we loaded everyone in the vehicles and took off to the woods. What a wonderful time we had. The dogs running ahead, Jake so glad to be able to, the kids exploring the woods, digging holes in the river's ice. At one point Jake went too far out and crashed into the water but managed to get out quickly. We thought he had learned his lesson but later he went down again, this time exerting much effort to get out as the current was stronger pulling him under. He looked rather paniked and I must say we were all worried. He did get himself out eventually and with a frozen body he took off again. The streams running down the cliff in the woods had frozen in stunning lumps and bumps of ice, I kept cursing myself for not bringing the camera. We hiked for a good bit and finally came upon a clearing that had a stone fire pit with stone seats all around it. Andrew got a fire going and we warmed ourselves while eating shortbread cookies and clementines. We then turned back, walking out of the woods into the freezing rain. We joined everyone at Nancy and Mikes and had a wonderful time together, laughing 'til our sides hurt. As always the time came for us to head out for home, and thankfully the freezing rain had stopped. Claire was asleep before we hit the highway, Daniel contemplative in the back seat, Jake too tired to do anything but lick his sore feet, and Sam awake but exhausted after sleeping the whole time at Nancy's. Hud and I were tired too and managed to get everyone inside, bedtime snacked and tucked into bed where we promptly dropped ourselves.

A wonderful start to a new year that we hope will be filled with many more such memories with our family and friends who are just like family to us. I hope this is a year in which we focus on what is really important in life, and that we make it count in so many ways.