Happy New Year

Like many others, I find the Old Year's passing a time that encourages reflection. 2006 was a good year for me, both in my work and private lives. It's good that our culture has this little landmark day once a year built into it for those who would like to take advantage of the quiet, new January 1st to contemplate our changes. Looking back one, or even 3 or 5 years shows so much change, anymore. Our boys are growing so quickly that it's hard to keep up.
We are in the midst of building a back entryway on the house. It's a huge project that is keeping my DH busy in his spare time. Once everything is done and all of our boots/coats/sports gear is moved out of the dining room and into the entryway I plan on moving my secretary desk over into the corner by the back door. Once it's there, we'll set it up with our daily paperwork (you know, the bills, the notices from school - all those things that can't get put away until they're dealt with, but can't be dealt with right away). Yesterday I spent some time readying the desk for it's move by emptying some of the drawers. The bottom drawer has had all the keepsakes relating to our family since the boys were born, and a few since we moved to Nakusp.
I've not been as diligent as I'd planned with keeping their baby books current - there are almost no entries at all after our youngest was born! But everything was there, including each of the calendars from each of the years in reverse chronological order. There are newspaper clippings, scripts and playbills from plays, photographs, letters (some to and from the tooth fairy) and all the other amazingly significant detritus that our lives have produced in the past 11 1/2 years. I spent a couple of hours going through things thinking at the outset that I'd pare it down some. This was not to be the case. I kept everything: The pressed leaves and flowers from the days our children were born, the ticket to seeing Lorne Elliot perform here in Nakusp.
In the end I decided that the stuff of 10+ years fitting into a small drawer was not too much to bear. That, if anything, I've been quite spare in what qualified to go in that drawer in the first place. It has all been lovingly transferred into a nice solid tub with a tight fitting lid and is now waiting at the top of the stairs to be moved down into our storage space, to take up residence with the two other time capsules that hold the remnants of Randy's and my lives from before our marriage.
This morning I added the household calendar from 2006 to the new, blue tub, with all its records of lost teeth, births, deaths and silly things like dental appointments.
I opened up our new calendar made by my sister in law, and marvelled at the photos of our families and that another year has passed. I wrote all the known birthdays and anniversaries on it, and know I will add much, much more as the days pass.
The cycle renews itself, and we begin again.

L