Happy New Year!

I have to admit, I love celebrating the new year!  There is something so exciting and refreshing about a new start, a clean calendar, a chance to start all over again!  I love reflecting on the year that has past; all the things I've been blessed with, the hardships we encountered and how we've overcome them!

As with everything in our lives, we tried to keep our celebrations simple this year.  We didn't want the business to take away from the day itself.  We chose to stay home and make it an intimate family affair and I can honestly say, it was the best New Year's Eve ever!

We started the night off with a picnic on the living room floor, in front of the fire place.

We coloured party hats to wear for our (fake) countdown.  We did it at 8 o' clock as there is no way the kids could stay up that late.  And really, who am I kidding?  I was ready for bed too!

I love how they all worked together, giving daddy some pointers on how to improve his hat!

And of course, there were many kisses to go around!

One of the big things we hope to work on this year is to bloom right where we are planted.  We have this dream of being self sufficient but always put it off, saying it will happen when we buy a house.  As we were discussing our goals for this year, we realized that there are plenty of things that we could be doing now, that we should be doing!  We're going to work a lot harder at our vegetable garden this year (lasts years crop yielded 7 beans and 1 tiny tomato!).  I'm going to branch out in canning and preserving, attempting more than just jam!!

I am so glad that we rang in the new year with so much love.  I can only hope that its a sign of things to come!