Holidays can be hard...

[apollo6]

Wishing you a better New Years. Too many sleepy New Years at home. Maybe next year go out New Years Eve. Will probably be asleep when the clock ticks Midnight. When did I get so old? My Apollo has visited through Humming birds flying up to me and my Mom. Saying I'm okay Mom and watching over you. Miss my boy every day.
Love Sonja, Apollo, Karma
And our two rescues Ariel and Kristen

[labblab]

Well, ladies, here we are turning the page and starting out with a fresh calendar. Hey Kathy and Sonja, I figured I’d be joining you in slumberland early last night. But I hung on and actually watched the TV ball dropping in icy Times Square. A small achievement, but I did it ;-).

And Addy, how good to hear from you. I’m soooooooo happy for your (our!) joy over Zoe’s tree, and I hope you and hubby had a swell time last night :-). I was especially taken by these words you wrote, and on this first fresh day of a new year, they’ve really got me thinking. Yesterday I was so mired down in absences that I couldn’t imagine a world absent a connection with that pain. But truly, the ending of one story may herald the beginning of another, if only the right bridge can be built.

So perhaps it may be that glorious ending I could not seem to find was because I was looking for it in the wrong places or perhaps did not even want to find the ending...


...Love to you all, memories held close of all we have lost, and my hopes you might find a glorious ending in an unexpected place..

So maybe I can work on my bridge-building skills this year. I’m thinking that sounds like a pretty good new year’s resolution. Starting out, though, it’s time for a brisk walk at the lake with Luna followed by some fortified eggnog and the Rose Parade. Those are a couple traditions I’m going to hold on to!

[Budster's Mom]

Well, I made it up till well past midnight also! Stumbled across a new series on Netflix and I ended up watching several episodes in a row. It's a British drama based in the late 50's, early 60's. Who would've thought? The next thing I knew fire crackers were going off and horns were honking. Happy/probably drunk neighbors were out in the street screaming Happy New Year.

No deep reflections from me. Frankly, I'm not that deep! Hoping that 2018 is better than 2017, with more love, joy and happiness for all!

[labblab]

Well, for our house, it’s the close of another winter holiday season. The Christmas tree ornaments were safely packed away yesterday, and our tree joined the others at the recycling center to be transformed into mulch for trails and gardens. That always makes me feel at least a little better about taking it away. A little, but not much. I really miss the glow of the twinkling lights on this cold January morning, and the living room seems so empty again. But it is what it is, and the pages on my new calendar start turning again. Every year we buy an old-fashioned paper calendar of daily pages with photos of Labs. We love seeing a new doggie face every morning. So now the 2018 calendar is on the shelf, and another new page gets turned this morning.

Once again, I want to thank everyone for stopping by this year. Having our holiday house here has come to mean a lot to me, and it has helped me through some very hard times. I hope the same is true for others, as well. And as I always say, the door here is also open throughout the rest of the year, too. There are plenty of other holidays in addition to the ones we’ve just celebrated. So until we talk again, I wish everyone my best.

With hugs to all,
Marianne