Happy New Year, friends!  I hope you all had a great start to the new year.  We had a ~wild and crazy night~ of watching the Twilight Zone marathon while I knitted and provided emotional support to my dog.  I fell asleep around 11 but woke up just before midnight.  In my 20s, I went through a phase where I felt like I had to be doing something on NYE to feel validated, but I’m so past that point now. I felt happy and content to be welcoming the new year in my pajamas, at home with my little family.

Honestly, January kind of sucks , but New Year’s Day marks my anniversary with Husband, which is one nice thing to look forward to. Our first official date was on January 1, 2012,  but we also spent NYE 2012 together.  We were both visiting our families in our hometown, and I’d invited Husband over to spend NYE with my brother and me (my brother was already a good friend of Husband’s and had introduced us years back).

I got really nervous after extending the invite; I didn’t want Husband to think I was  ~moving things too quickly~ by introducing him to my parents before we even went on our date. So I effectively banished my parents to their bedroom for the rest of the night while Husband was over.  You’re probably like, “Aw, that’s a cute story, were you in high school?” NO GUYS, I WAS 27.  But it worked out. My parents graciously accommodated my ridiculous request, I had a great time once I stopped being super awkward, Husband and I went on our date the next day…and the rest is history 🙂

So to bring in 2019 and celebrate 7 years together, we decided to go on a First Day hike at Inks Lake State Park, which is about an hour from where we live.  I’m not going to lie, it was hard getting out of the house.  It was 40 degrees outside, cloudy, and generally yucky.  But past experience has taught me that I would have felt good about skipping out on the hike for about 30 minutes, and then would have spent the rest of the day in self-loathing.

It was hard to get those endorphins going at first. It was cold and I was grumpy.  “This better not suck,” I thought (did I mention this hike was my idea? Yep).  But eventually the endorphins kicked in, my grumpiness faded, and I was awed by the the stark winter beauty.  I was mesmerized by the color palette- earthy tones from the rocks and bare limbs, muted greens from the moss I observed on the rocks.  I recognized some bluebonnets emerging – I can’t wait until they bloom!

Can you tell I’m wearing like three layers of clothing?

At the halfway point, park rangers gave us all breakfast bars and cider.  We toasted to 2019 and I felt accomplished and happy.  On the hike back, Husband and I talked about our plans for the upcoming year.  Overall, we hiked 4 miles!  Afterward, we stopped at a cozy cafe for lunch.  I made a roasted chicken when I got home, did a little organizing, and then continued watching the Twilight Zone marathon.  I definitely made some progress with my knitting project!

I just feel like I should tell you that THIS IS YARN FROM MY STASH that I’ve had for a YEAR AND A HALF and I shouldn’t feel so proud of this fact.

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year! Let me know how you spent it 🙂