Well!  A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from us to you!  Life whisked us off to the strawbale house before I could prepare any sort of holiday posts for you, then Christmas had us galloping to California and back again, then a pair of colds we picked up from our darling but virus ridden nieces and nephews had us on our knees for the better part of a week (bless their squeaky little souls).

  Lastly, I started skiing and the rest is history, as they say!

We hope you spent the holidays with your beloved friends and family, that you were aware of the magic of the season and that you felt the full and glorious peace of God in your hearts despite the chaos reported in the news both in the wide world and here at home in the USA.  It’s a funny thing to feel troubled and outraged by world events while sitting tucked away safe in a little house on a beautiful river in a quiet desert with nothing but a man, dogs and books to keep company with.  Life always seems to be a clash of the senses, a cacophony of emotions, discordantly melodic in the best of times.

I thought of you much, over Christmas, and held you uplifted in my heart (and continue to).  I hope you felt it, over the distance between us.

I haven’t really had a moment to dream up any resolutions for the year however, I do plan on printing off Susannah Conway’s end of year/start of year paper thingy again.  I filled out most of this workbook last year and found it an enriching experience.  It helped me to roughly plan out my year and make a handful of goals (some of which I met, some of which are CONTINUING goals).  I’ll be doing the 2015 workbook a little late this year but better late than never!  I encourage you to do the same if you haven’t already done something like it.

And finally, to loosely tally 2014 for you:

Mason jars home canned and put up in the pantry (jams, pickles, marina sauce, whole plums, relishes, etc.): 172

Flat tires on trucks: 2

Antelope harvested: 1

Tea roses planted: 4

Pellet stoves installed in the studio: 1

Pairs of spring green clogs purchased: 1

Rafting trips:  8

19 inch cutthroat caught on the fly on the south fork of the Snake River: 1

Companies employed by as a freelance photographer: 11

Escargot consumed: 0

Trips to California: 2

Trips to Saskatchewan: 2

Magpie chicks in the nest in the Austrian pine:  3

Peaches produced by the peach tree:  4

Pairs of cross country skis brought home from ski swap:  2

Desert bighorn sheep spotted: 5

Badger hole investigated: 1

Cavities filled: 1 (tiny little bugger)

Gyms joined: 0

Come on, come on 2015.  Bring the light.  Bring the dark.  We’ll weather your storms and bask in your sunshine.