Getting all sappy on New Year's Eve

:: Stephanie, Meghan, and me on December 31, 1999 ::

Well, here we are on the brink of 2013. Funny to think it was 13 years ago when I so vividly remember toasting in the new millennium with one of my best girlfriends, her sister and their cousin at the ripe age of 17, complete with our sparkling cider, year 2000 plastic sunglasses, and an ever-so-faint wondering if the world would really get all glitched up with Y2K. Alas, it did not. Time marched on. Breath after breath we moved forward in time.

New Year's Eve 1999 was a memorable one for sure. The rest of those December 31sts just seem to run together in memory. But I think this New Year's Eve 2012 will be memorable too. Our last one as a 2-person family. Bittersweet in a way. More sweet than bitter actually. But something about it makes me all teary (*ahem* HORMONES).

:: Our wedding. September 2007 ::

I think for most people reflection comes naturally at the end of a year. The coming end of this year makes me so incredibly grateful to have shared the last 9+ years of my life with such an amazing man, who grew to become my husband and now the soon-to-be father of our baby boy. He and I. The two of us. About to become three in less than three short months. Tears are strolling down my face as I write this. It's truly something special when you feel so much love, gratitude, and joy bursting out of you at the simple thought of one person.

:: On the western shore of Ireland, June 2011 ::

I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if that summer after the Y2K new year, I had chosen to attend a different college, in a different state, meeting different people, leading me to different relationships and different jobs, apartments, experiences... you name it. The simple, yet somewhat earth-shaking decision to move to Vermont for college from my home state of Connecticut inevitably lead me down this path that I am forever grateful for. And here I sit - 13 years later - still living in Vermont, married to the love of my life, starting our own family, in our house, with our laughable lovable pets, with amazing circles of friends, with jobs we enjoy and families we love... but most of all, with happiness - with hope and promise for what the future will bring.

:: Our chalkboard, made by our talented friend Sara at Freckles + Wit ::