Lovelihood

Bear's pretty much a dump-them-all-out kind of Lego constructionist. The better to find little men, and hats to go on little men, to transport in her custom-built, wheeled conveyances.

It's fitting that the first run of the year would be in out-and-out downpour. Bear was tucked into her many layers and a fleece throw and under a canopy whose functionality has never let me down in five years of rainy day runs, most of them in Seattle, where there is no shortage of runners and cyclysts on the trail on days like this.

My Christmas loot consisted mostly of gift cards, which makes for anticlimactic unwrapping, but allows me the fun of finding little packages on the porch weeks after the fact. Today's package included a much-anticipated Rawwwwwwr!

Out to lunch on the last day before routine sets back in, we stumbled across a mysterious message in the form of an in-the-sidewalk panel.

I spent enough time this afternoon teaching myself to crochet that I can cross that new venture off my list of things to spend time doing.

Once a year I take my requisite sip of champagne and conclude that, indeed, I do not like the stuff. But after we hussle the kids up to bed, perhaps a little more eagerly than normal (certainly not ready to even attempt to keep them up until midnight), we break out the other decidedly adult treat of the softest brie we can dig out of the self-serve cheese counter and a small pot of fig preserves. And that's the part I like about New Year's Eve.

We're a couple days off, yet. But already, it's begun.