New Year

On our last New Year's letter we wrote, “We finally accepted that we aren’t leaving Concord anytime soon, and realized that it has a lot to offer.”

Two months later I lost my job and possibly the most stressful phase of our lives (to date) commenced.

Nine months after that we are in a new town, new jobs, new schools and have barely started to feel like our feet might be resting on solid earth. But they are.

So our "resolutions," as they are, are oriented around our desire to feel more present and settled, to appreciate this place and time to the fullest, since all places and times are temporary.

Go out more (see theater and live music, take dance classes, see friends).

Find the best (affordable) ethnic restaurants and eat at them.

Get out of town to whatever wilderness this region has to offer, at least a few times.

And, of course, continue to develop our professions and solidify relationships with this side of the family.

I think we can manage that. Then, even if we are missing New England (the snow, the skiing, the skating, the sledding, the trips to Boston, the parties with the Hipples and Crew, the last minute dinner gatherings, the Full Moon Marches in the middle of winter, the promise of the coast, the proximity of the mountains, the wildness, the quiet times with Oma and Pop Pop, the relative simplicity), we can say that we are, as they say, "disfrutandonos."