Share and Create Family Traditions

My husband and I have created a tradition that we now cannot live without.   I guess it's really more of a "couple tradition" than a family tradition, but anyway.   Each year, our Christmas present to one another is a New Year's Eve trip to Athens.  We get a fancy hotel room, leave Flanna with a sitter (this year she spend the night with a friend, even better!), eat a nice dinner out, and ring in the new year downtown with friends.

It's sublime.  And I feel refreshed even just talking about it.

It's so nice to have time together just as a couple, and to get to feel young and fun out on the town now and then!  I think little breaks from the routine of the day-to-day are essential for a good marriage, and I try to plan little excursions and date nights as often as I can.

Here are some of our cute friends who met up with us.  And, by the way, in my defense, there is no graceful way to hold a NYE party favor for a photo.  It always looks silly, no matter what.

What "couple traditions" do you and your partner enjoy?  Some of my facebook friends have a "Wednesday night funny movie night" each week, which I think sounds so great.  

Eat Meals with Neat Folks

caught a smile!

I read a book about being happy at work about two years ago (Now I can't remember what it was called?), and one of the suggestions the author made was to always eat lunch with someone you find interesting, and to NEVER eat lunch alone in your office.  I don't always follow that advice, but when I do, I really do find myself happier at work.


Anyway, I think that advice transfers nicely to home life, too.  Eat meals with neat folks, and never eat alone standing over your kitchen sink.  Not that I've ever done that.  Cough.

Anyway, we met up with some of our favorite folks (and their adorable baby!) for dinner on New Year's Eve, and it was just lovely to sit together and eat some beautiful salads.  Really, I think we all got salads.  It's New Year's, you know, so I think we're all ready to begin to step back from feasts and caloric bounty to, well, goodness and health.  The salad were amazing, though, really!  Big City Bread (now kind of a swanky little restaurant!) was good to us that way.

Oh, and the best thing was that there were fires outside and sidewalk chalk for the kids to enjoy.  Gotta love a place that creates such ambiance even for kids.

this was her silly pose

my cute hubby

neat folks with adorable baby

we are trying to become hair twins
(and no, I didn't tell him to wear gray so we could be matchy matchy, too.  we are just telepathic)

baby boy loved carrying the bucket of chalk the best

not sure if that's ash or chalk dust I captured in the air, but I thought it looked a bit like snow!

What neat folks do you like to eat with?

On Luck

It's almost New Year's Eve.  I am on vacation, staying with my in-laws down South.  I sit in a quiet office with my dog Padme dozing in the chair beside me.  My daughter is asleep down the hall.  My husband works at his laptop in the kitchen, coding and thinking and coding again.  My in-laws watch TV and get ready for bed in another part of the house.  It's quiet except for the hum of a small heater running at my feet, beside which my tiny black dachshund, Annie, sleeps.

And here I sit in a cozy chair, my mother-in-law's chair, and think about the past year.  About my happiness project.  About my life, about my friends' lives.

And all I can think, is, "How did I get so lucky?"

Some people say there is no luck, that things happen for a reason.

But this year, my friends have lost parents.  Have lost children.   Have lost babies yet unborn.  Have lost jobs.  Have lost homes.  Have lost dogs they loved.  Have discovered cancer.  Have had children diagnosed with disabilities.  Have fought disease and pain.  Have battled depression.  Have faced infertility.  Have faced bankruptcy.  Have lost more in a year than some lose in a lifetime.

And I see no reason behind the suffering.  No reason.

It could have been me, in any of those situations.  But, instead, I got to watch my beautiful daughter flourish and grow.  To see my wonderful husband do productive and interesting work.  To work, myself, in not one but two rewarding jobs.  To have a healthy, loving, and supportive immediate and extended family.

Tonight, I sit in a comfortable, quiet house at peace with those I love and those who love me.

I'm exceptionally lucky.

I appreciate that, and I mourn for the moments of peace my friends are missing out on because of loss, illness, stress, or hardship this year.  I think this quote (from an interview on the Happiness Project blog) sort of fits my thought process today:

 "..it’s a good thing to know life is short, to appreciate people’s – my own and others' - strengths and weaknesses, to love, and to feel grateful for what I have."   

Boy, way to ring in the new year on a dark note, eh?  I promise a more uplifting tone to tomorrow's post!  But sometimes we gotta get sad to get happy, right?


Have you felt lucky or unlucky this year?   And do you think all things happen for a reason?


(By the way, this  blog by my friend Rachel, who lost her daughter in a car accident in October, has meant so much to me this year, by making me continually contemplate the big picture and appreciate every precious day I get to experience with my family.)