The last of our of houseguests for 2012 have left before this morning’s sunrise.  I am sitting at the table basking in the glow of my happy lamp, munching on blueberries and sipping coffee while the children make play-doh cookies and ignore their oatmeal.  The Natalie MacMaster Pandora station is blasting, because it is never quiet in our house, there must always be music.

It is a new year.  The calendar says so.  The Mayans say so.  Susan Miller says so (the best astrological forecast for your money, in my opinion, thanks to sweet RoseRita for the introduction).  2012 has been a challenging year for some many people I know and love, and certainly it will go down in my own personal history as a particularly dark time.  But on this clear morning, it’s nothing a good maritime jig can’t fix.

We have been blessed with a steady stream of guests all year, 2012′s one saving grace.  Weeks and weeks of time with my parents, quiet time with an old Chicago friend, finally meeting an old Calgary friend’s family and falling in love with them all, bonding time with my in-laws, an epic Thanksgiving weekend with some of my favorite college friends.  Is there greater pleasure than getting together with old friends?  Arguing loudly over books and music, baring your soul over quiet coffees, hatching plans, widening the embracing to welcome new loves and chasing a growing gaggle of children- still crazy, after all these years.

Now the house is quiet, save for The Wind that Shakes the Barley.  I hatch my own plans.  Life is good.