Red Year, Blue Year, Old Year, New Year

Happy 2010, everyone! And no, we are NOT in a new decade, but rather at the end of the current one! But who's keeping track?

2009 was full of firsts for us...first wedding anniversary, first pregnancy, first kid, first Xmas with the kid. Oh, and the very end of 2009 brought the kid's first bout with illness. Yup, that was fun, right around the holidays, too. But now we're in 2010, the holidays are over, the kid is feeling better and we're prepping for whatever's in store for us, like the kid's sleeping schedule changing. Ahhhh, yes...nstead of the 4-5 uninterrupted hours she typically sleeps during the night, now she's sleeping only 1-1 1/2. Yeah, my legs and breasts are getting a good workout as I limp to her room several times a night to nurse.

Last year held another first for me--my first foray into the world of knitting! A new friend invited me to join her knitting group, and I've totally surprised myself by how much I love it...the knitting part as well as the socializing part. I just finished my first project--a totally shapeless series of increasing and decreasing stitches that I was able to fold into some semblance of a purse. My knitting friends are way more impressed than they should be by the fact that my first project is a purse; it was literally a ginormouse mass of nothingness that I just tried to make into something productive. However, now that I know what I'm doing (mostly), I'm taking a step backward and making the proverbial beginning knitter's scarf. Look out family! Xmas 2010 presents are in the works!

Adam and I are looking forward to 2010, hoping that it will bring us some gainful employment, perhaps a new location, and a feeling of stability. We are definitely wanting to set down roots someplace now that Bryony is in the picture. If that's Lansing, that's cool; if it's somewhere else (Oregon, Oregon, please let it be Oregon!) that'd be pretty cool, too. I am also feeling a new rejuvenation, a new sense of self and self-confidence. I'm ready to create my own destiny, whatever that means...perhaps I'll fully divulge those details in a later post. For now, however, I'll stay a bit vague.

Right now I'm looking at one vestige of 2009--our beautiful Frasier fir Christmas tree, only the second I've ever had as an adult. The white lights are twinkling and the tree is still giving off the intoxicating scent of evergreen sap, a reminder of the holiday that's passed. Tomorrow I'll take the tree down and stow all of the ornaments and decorations back down in the basement until next year. But tonight, I'll sit here, with my sweet baby sleeping soundly (for now) in the next room, and knit a few stitches on somebody's future scarf by the comforting white lights of O Christmas Tree.

Happy New Year, everyone.