Dear reader, we gave Sophie some papercutting tools as a Christmas gift and it is delighting me beyond words to see what she is doing with them. She made this wee hedgehog for my sister who is visiting and I've already asked her three times if she didn't really intend it for me.
At any rate, there is yet a little while before true bedlam reigns as more cousins, siblings, and friends join us to welcome the new year.
So I just wanted to take a moment to visit with you. It's not my style to wax especially profound at the end of a year, except to say I am grateful for it and quietly excited for what is yet to come.
What I really wanted to do is say thank you.
Thank you for the time you've spent visiting Tollipop. Thank you for your lovely comments...they always touch me, even just the thought of someone taking the time to comment means a lot, but beyond that you say the kindest things, the most thought provoking things, the most amusing things, the most reassuring things. I often think I see whatever it is I was writing about more clearly through your insight.
I hope 2012 is a wonderful year for us all. I've lived long enough to understand such a wish must be grounded in reality and so I suppose what I really hope is that we can remain steady through all the good and not so good and extra tough moments which inevitably come our way. Dig deep. Hang in there. Be optimistic. Stay on the raft. Tie our rafts together, when possible. And smile, laugh, and enjoy the many good things in life, no matter what.
Happy New Year, dear reader.
xoxo