Happy New Year's - "Hi Family!" I walk into the room with that greeting, very frequently. When I say, "Hi Family!" I often mean that those of you whom I spend time with, you are my family. You are as dear to me as my Sister and my Mom, my Nieces, my Brother-in-Law and my Step-Dad, my Step-Sibs and their families, my Dad, my Aunties and Uncles and Cousins and Grandparents and all their extended families. My Birth Family and my Chosen Family -- you all mean everything to me. You are my treasures, my glory, my love, and my life. Thank you, for being part of me and sharing yourself with me.

Start as you mean to go on. - This simple English phrase, "Start as you mean to go on," has stuck in my head ever since I heard Brenda Dayne speak about it in her podcast, Cast-On. It reminds me of "Do, or do not. There is no 'try'," from Yoda in Star Wars. I've sometimes scoffed at the notion of "New Year's Resolutions" since I believe every moment in front of us is new. Each hour, each day -- we are given the opportunity to make a choice. And in that moment of choice, we can be resolute to follow our convictions or not.

Of course, resolutions are all the talk on the radio, the tv, the internet, on blogs and in journals, with friends on the phone, on text messages, in emails, in letters, and at parties, gatherings, meals, and casual time spent together. So I cannot completely ignore the issue.

Do I have any resolutions, motivations, or decisions behind which I want to spend even more energy than previously or recently? I suppose I do. I've been giving thought to the nature of working on things at the last minute, versus completely tasks early. As a lifestyle, I'd like to find myself done with tasks before their deadlines. I'd like to arrive at appointments early, rather than late. I'd like to send in RSVP notes before the requested respond by date. I'd like to have bills mailed or paid in advance, even if it just means pre-scheduling a payment to go out later.

I'd like to plan for having moments of smug relaxation, that I managed to complete things early, not just on time and with fewer times of completing things late.

Towards this notion, I wrote a postcard to a friend. I completed some crochet. I cleaned major portions of my room again. I logged some books in my LibraryThing catalog, stamped the inside covers with my bookplate mark, and took photos of some of the book covers. I emptied the trash, to make the kitchen clean before I needed it to be presentable. I completed converting a file from Adobe PageMaker to Microsoft Word.

Still left to do, a long list of items -- some of which I will just barely make their deadlines, a few of which will still go out late since I'm only just now wrapping up the work on tasks I should have done early, well um, earlier. But I'm finding my head above water again. And I'm finding some extreme satisfaction in several completed tasks that are done before I needed them to be, and which make me feel better about the long to-do lists ahead of me.

Finally, I want to continue updating my journal with more regularity. Maybe share fewer, shorter, but more frequent stories and photos with you. This is a hope of mine, and I hope you enjoy it.

How my year ended - At work, I shifted from "hurry up and wait" moments, punctuated with meeting after meeting, to long nights completing documentation for software that was finally no longer changing, but in dire need of immediate distribution. The week before Christmas, I worked until 2 am on Tuesday AND Wednesday, followed by a day so sleep-deprived I accidentally spent the entire day with my contacts each in the wrong eyes, which caused smeared vision so that, for example, a 4" running light on a semitruck appeared to be 3.5-feet tall and slightly tilted to the right. I spent that day trying to edit text and graphics, having to magnify the screen between 200-400% what I normally use. Once everything was done, it was documentation I was proud of, so that was a success.

My mom's birthday happens to be one week before Christmas, so my sister and I tend to exert some extra effort to make certain her birthday is BIRTHDAY-themed, and not just an early celebration of Christmas. I made sure her gifts were in non-Christmas themed colors (this year: orange, pink, and light blue stripes). I took her out for lunch on her actual birthday, and then we had dinner at my sister's the following evening. We watched a movie together, just us three girls, and it was a lovely success.

Alan and Theresa held a house-warming party, the Saturday before Christmas, and I was fortunate enough to learn a new fiber skill from Lorissa (Lora) at the party. She taught me how to do "Tunisian Crochet" (which, according to a quick search on the internet, can be called Tunisian Crochet, Afghan Stitch, Tricot Crochet, Shepherd's Knitting, Hook Knitting, Railroad Knitting...). And examining just one tutorial, Lora and I do something different than the pictures, so I'll just claim that what I do is called "Lora's Tunisian Crochet."

I like it, I'm completely addicted to it, and with this skill I was able to knock out 6 scarves in 5 days, making certain that my four nieces, my sister, and my Mom all had hand-made gifts from me on Christmas morning. For each scarf, I plied together on my drop-spindle (that means wrapping in a spiral) two different commercial yarns -- a bulky yarn with an "eyelash yarn." Eyelash is very difficult or annoying to knit or crochet with, but wrapping it around a bulky yarn allowed the perfect match for the novelty of the yarns. The bulky yarn meant working the stitch on a wide hook would finish the scarves quickly. And the eyelash yarn lost its annoying tangling quality, while making a wonderful halo of little strands on the finished fabric. I've committed to making a good dozen more, to make certain my step-sibs have scarves too, as well as my eldest nieces getting second scarves in colors of their choosing.

(And if you are on Ravelry, you can see my Project Notes... this is the first time I've added any projects to Ravelry! *grin*)

Chanukah was a little different this year, around my house and among my friends. Last year, I took photos every night to share the holiday with a friend who was off at college, with no one to share the holiday. This year, my roomie and I hosted a party on Solstice, which was also the first night to light candles. It was a wonderful blend of Solstice, Chanukah, and Christmas, all in one week. Lights, reverence, reflection, and friendship made for a beautiful week.

Twice I spent the evening at Jeff and Adrienne's, lighting candles with them and with Benji for the first time. And at home, I found out that if you fall asleep with 5 or more candles lit in two Chanukiot (that's plural for Chanukah menorah's), that's just enough last-of-the-wick smoke to set off my bedroom fire alarm. Fortunately my roomie wasn't home that night, or I'd have been even more mortally embarrassed at the alarm than I already was. In my sleep-deprivation, it was a huge chore to realize it was the fire alarm and not my clock alarm, and even more difficult to find a step-ladder to pull out the battery to make it stop. I learned a simple, and non-lethal lesson that night.

Oh, and I also got to see Adrienne's parents again, on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, as we did some Chanukah shopping together at the local Judiaca store that's closing its doors after 22 years (now it will be just an internet business), taking advantage of huge sale prices on Christmas day together. It's so fun to shop at a Judaica store on Christmas morning, before going to my sister's for Christmas. I love having a blended life of celebration! My family celebrates Christmas, and I celebrate my family and have enjoyed gift giving with my born-familiy for all my life. And my love for Chanukah has grown over the past 4 years, which just gets richer and richer, with each annual celebration with friends and my chosen-family, too.

My college roomie Ceri and her lovely husband (also my friend) David, and their new son "Smiley" were in Southern CA for the holidays, and so the Saturday after Christmas I spent visiting with them at Ceri's parents' house. It was a *wonderful* visit, and such a treat to see them for the first time in nearly 10 years, and certainly the first time to meet my honorary nephew. He took a liking to me, which pleased me to no end, and we spent the afternoon relaxing, enjoying a lovely meal together, a walk through the neighborhood before the sunset, and an evening around the table playing a story-telling card game. It was fantastic to see them.

Then I was able to return home in plenty of time to pick up my roomie from the airport as she returned from her Christmas travels, and for us to swap holiday stories together at home.

The following day, the Hospitallers (or HoC's for short, pronounced just like "Hawks") were holding a "we appreciate all of you" tourney at their local fighter practice. Since I simply adore many of the HoCs, I drove right back again the next day, 2-hours south and just past where I'd visited Ceri and David the day before, to spend a day in the park with friends. My friend Cormac didn't own a Chanukiah of his own, so I was quite pleased to present him one for a Chanukah gift. I got to spend some fantastic time with Aileen, as we discussed so many things connected with history, religion, faith, persona development in the SCA, and just the joy of life. I got to spend some quality time chatting with Urbano (Jaime) too, which was a real treat. He's one of my newest friends in the HoCs, and certainly is a treasure. I look forward to growing friendship with him. And we all went to dinner together after the event, which is always a treat.

I was at work for Monday and Tuesday this week. I took the time Monday evening to fill in my large wall calendars for 2009, for home and for work, with all the major holidays, days off, SCA events, family events, and other plans that I have to remember. There are weddings coming up this summer, baby due dates, a large family trip, some major SCA trips, and some wonderful artistic pursuits I have on my calendars. And of course today was my favorite "Happy Flip the Calendar Day" around the house as I not only flipped the pages from December to January, but in some cases exchanged one calendar for another.

And on Tuesday night, I got to spend some time at Rae's house, just crocheting and chatting and enjoying dinner and time together. This was a huge blessing and wonderfully relaxing.

New Year's Eve Day I spent in pursuit of housecleaning, organizing, and errands. There were many to-do lists and tasks completed. Then two parties for the evening: A brief visit at Jon Thomme and Eva's housewarming, then the Annual Poker Championship and New Year's Eve party with Ben and Saul, and 2-3 dozen friends, acquaintances, and new friends to meet. This year was extra special, since I specifically went to just relax, socialize, crochet, and not worry about playing cards. I crashed on the small loveseat couch, and had a fantastic brunch at Cantor's with friends this morning. This evening, I had my favorite comfort foods at Mimi's, along with several hours reading a good book. And right now, the black-eyed peas are almost done cooking in the kitchen, to round out ringing in the new year with superstitious food joy and blessings.

I hope you all had a wonderful Solstice, Christmas, Chanukah, Holiday, and/or New Years celebration(s). I know that my friends and family celebrate different holidays, and I celebrate having you all in my life. You matter to me. Thank you for being there. I love you all so much.

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Today's Photo Portion - This week, I also managed to load two photo albums to my site. I needed photos from our Passover dinners for an email conversation with a new friend who's learning about traditional Jewish foods. I wanted to extend an invitation to her, for this upcoming Passover, and since we've never met in person, I thought photos would be a good way to describe our get-togethers. So please enjoy three Passover dinners in the 2008 album, and two dinners in the 2007 album.

 

And it seems I forgot to include this album, from some amazing sunrises and sunsets in Malibu recently.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: New Friends and Old, Born-Family and Chosen-Family. Continued Good Life for 2009.