Welcome 2013!

"And now we welcome the New Year, full of things that have never been." -Rainer Maria Rilke

Well hello there 2013!

It has been a few weeks since I've written and life has been full. We had safe-travels to and from Dallas for the Christmas holiday, with wonderful time spent with family and friends. I've been soaking it in. Enjoying every second. Being thankful.

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man." -Benjamin Franklin

We celebrated NYE last night in wild fashion, with two of our friends, a home-cooked meal and a feisty board game.



It got crazy y'all...and it was just perfect.

Now I know this is the time when resolutions are made for the upcoming year, but I've never been a big New Years resolution-gal. But this year there was a lot to reflect on and I felt like I needed to pen-to-paper some "things to accomplish." In 2012 I became acutely more aware of the fragility of life, the importance of not taking any day, moment, time- for granted. Thus, in the spirit of celebrating the moment, I thought what better time for a family tradition than the present! I mean, now that we have this third person hanging around, I want to start traditions with him and our family that are special- that he'll one day look forward to. So what did I decide to do? Wait for it...cook dinner.

Now, not just dinner, a SPECIAL black-eyed pea casserole (because everyone needs a little good luck in the New Year), with a little Texas-twist. Yep, that's it...JUST dinner, but y'all I got my husband to eat black-eyed peas with this recipe (thanks Pinterest) so I would highly recommend it. (PS if you have any NY traditions that you do, I would LOVE to steal hear them. Not for the lack of creativity, of course).

So, 2013, welcome! Tonight we celebrated you with year ONE of our 'New Years day black-eyed-pea-casserole tradition'- we ate, toasted the past year, talked about things we are looking forward to in the New Year, and ate our peas. And sitting in between us was this guy:



...our greatest blessing in 2012. Though he didn't have much to say today during our toast, I am so looking forward to the time when he will. 2012, you were good to us and we did not take one single day of you for granted.

"Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.”―Brad Paisley

[caption id="attachment_872" align="aligncenter" width="571"] Lounging with this happy baby kicked off 2013 pretty darn good.[/caption]

Best to you and yours in the New Year,
Lauren