A Peaceful Start to the New Year

The holidays were such a rush of activity, and my husband's work schedule was actually a bit relentless, so when New Year's Eve rolled around, we opted for simplicity, and a slower kind of a night. We kicked the evening off with dinner with my brother and his wife, stopped by my cousin's for an hour, then pretty much stayed home in our pajamas watching television until the ball dropped, where the two of us ushered in the new year together. It was a quiet way to celebrate, but it was exactly what we wanted, and also what we needed.

New Year's Day for me is always an intentional day - I feel on some level what you do sets the tone for the year. Billy and I had planned on taking a short hike around our favorite metropark, but the weather was so bitter cold that we ended up driving around a few instead. We were rewarded with some beautiful views, a herd of deer, and an eagle soaring low above our heads. Afterwards, we made dinner - he made a southern good luck dinner complete with cornbread (he seriously makes the best ever cornbread), and I made a vegetable soup. We ended the evening watching one of my favorite movies, The Big Year.

The second day of the year we enjoyed the same sense of deliberation and ease. Billy had managed to get a day off work besides New Year's Day, so we had a wonderful long weekend planned. We began Friday with breakfast at this newish diner in Detroit, called Rose's Fine Food. It was huge on charm and personality, and my pancakes were delicious! Billy wasn't as thrilled with his choice, but is willing to give the place another shot. One cool thing about this restaurant: the servers all make a living wage and gratuity isn't necessary. If you do choose to leave a tip, it goes to a Detroit charity.

We took a post-breakfast drive around Belle Isle, one of my favorite places ever, to look for birds, then headed home to be lazy for a few hours before joining two of our friends for dinner.

 All in all, it was a perfect way to break in the new year - minus the harried rush of Christmas. It was about spending time in nature, trying new restaurants and most of all, spending quality time together, without an agenda or schedule to be stuck too. That will come soon enough, on Monday when we head back to reality. But until then we are going to remain in our cocoon of calm, and maybe then when Monday comes, we will be ready to face the crazy again, but this time with a little more peace and tranquility in our demeanor, that will carry us through the week, and hopefully, maintain the same the sort of attitude through this year.