As the sun sets

 As I was preparing dinner I was reflecting on the past week.  It is often a challenge to spend great amounts of time with family members -- and for me it is challenging to never be alone.  I crave my alone time, and it has really been.  A. Long. Time.


  But overall, it has been nice.  Hallie was home for two weeks, and while we didn't see her the entire time as she made a few trips to visit friends, it was nice to have her back in the fold.  Normally this time of year we are dealing with ski races, but this year that is not the case.  Maddie is not on the Eastern team at school this year, so both she and Charlie will only have races on Wednesday.  This is new.  And it is a refreshing change, because quite frankly, I was way done with race spectating.  Time. To. Move. On.

 As different thoughts flitted through my mind, I happened to look outside the window.  Oh my.  It was spectactular, and while it hadn't been that nice of a day, mostly cloudy, the sunset was giving its all.  Charlie had grumped around earlier stating that New Hampshire is boring, we are boring and really it is my job to provide him with, well, I guess with a life!  And since I do do that, I don't really feel too bad for him.  He can go out on his snowmobile, he skied yesterday (and missed the chore of stacking wood) and visited with a friend he hadn't seen since this summer.  I get that disgruntled feeling.  I had been fighting it all day since waking up and knowing that Hallie was on a plane away from us -- back to Chicago and her life and with no concrete plans when we will see her again.  And we spent the morning taking down the tree and rearranging the furniture to mask the hole the removal of the tree had made, and all the lights and jolly ho ho has been stored away for another year.

 But seriously, when you have this too gaze upon, is anything really that bad?  I could literally inhale this sunset -- I ran outside with my camera and just reveled in its sheer beauty.  Of course a picture never comes close to portraying the true awedropping masterpiece, but I felt it, I breathed it in and knew with all my heart that you can't stay down when this is your backyard.

 Not that I was really down.  I have nothing to complain about.  I had a lovely few weeks.  I went to New York City with the Family Chicks and I spent countless hours reading and sleeping and partying with friends and going out to dinner and creating and eating one fabulous meal after another here at home.  But I get how Charlie feels -- and I honor his grumpiness because we all deserve to feel whatever way we feel.  And sometimes the only thing that ultimately helps is to wallow in it, cover yourself with your complaints and when your mother tells you to look at the gorgeous sunset, pretend to ignore her.  But I saw him look.  He has grown up with a mother who loves her sunsets.  Whether I am at the lake, here at home or somewhere else, I am always keyed in to the end of the day.  Sometimes it passes without any fanfare ...

 ...but on some nights you get treated with the real deal.  I kept leaving my chopping board, grabbing my camera and running out to get more pictures.  Again, it was a million times more gorgeous in person, but you get the gist.  It is also crazy warm out, so it is delightful to be out there soaking it in.

 And now that the crowds have headed home, we local yokels are going to head to Mt. Sunapee and ski tomorrow!  All week I have been hearing about record breaking crowds and not for one moment, despite the beautiful weather, have I felt cheated at not skiing.  We have midweek passes this year, and even for many year's past we haven't had passes that allow us to ski during vacation weeks -- and that is fine with us.  We lost a lot of snow in the premature January thaw, but it was nice to have a white Christmas.  (Or did it happen after Christmas?  It's all a blur!)

I think I fell into a new tradition this year -- staying home and watching movies on New Years Eve and then going out for a festive dinner on New Year's Day.  For some reason, it just felt right.  I have always been hot and cold about New Year's Eve -- and will be the first one to throw a party if the mood strikes me.  But this year I was so not into it.  And maybe because it is too much -- first we have Christmas Eve, which requires some sort of recognition, and then we have Christmas Day, which of course needs to be addressed, and then, a week later we need to rinse and repeat?  The whole in with the new and out with the old doesn't resonate with me.  I believe that we should spend every day resolving to make whatever we can better.  January 1st is no different than any other day -- it just has a different number at the end of the year.  I prefer to be timeless versus cataloging my life with time.

So here's to tomorrow.  And the next day, and the day after that.  Hopefully the sunsets will continue to perform.