Moving On

Although there were some wonderful moments in 2007 - our wedding, the honeymoon, the arrival of Duffy the dog, finishing that damn triathlon - I am more than happy to be done with that year. If everything that had happened to us in 2007 had been spread out over the course of 3 or even five years, it still would have felt like too much. I really can't believe that I survived parts of this year without having a mental breakdown or pushing Paul away.

In any case, we had a nice New Years Eve together. Paul made the most incredible meal - Coq au Vin (sans bacon) and mushroom pasmesan risotto. He must have spent close to three hours on it, and it was worth every minute. I stirred the risotto and set the table, but damn, did that table look good.

I pulled out all the stops, and each item I pulled out from the hutch reminded me of someone we love. I used our table runner for the first time, and with the other linens and the napkin rings, I thought of Ruthie. I set the silverware and took out the serving utensils for the first time and thought of Paul's grandparents, who, though they weren't with us at the wedding, were remembered to us through a special gift from Paul's parents. The candles were a surprise gift from my friend Michelle at my old school - she had given them to me years ago, but we never had candle sticks until the wedding! We used the wine glasses, one for white wine and one for red, that Paul's parents engraved with our monogram as a surprise for our wedding table. The gorgeous toasting flutes that Geri and Ilene gave us made the table look very sophisticated. And the much labored-over food stood up to the elegance of the dishes my mother gave us.

So it might have been a lonely New Years, with just the two of us and a cable box that annoyingly kept turning itself off. At the second and a half floor in an empty dorm at the top of a hill that is not a hub, we felt a little isolated and strange to be spending the holiday alone. Except there were all the little "things" that reminded us of people in other places that we would have like to have been with. I usually don't speak very highly of "things" (in fact, I usually refer to them using a different, less pleasant word). But in this case, the "things" made my night.

Hello, new year. Thank god.