Saturday, January 5, 2013

A Perfect New Year

It's a new year.  And we kicked it off with a road trip.  Our road trips are always long drives and the scenery  doesn't change much for the first four hours.  Luckily for us it was all winter wonderland-y and magical looking.  I get a cozy feeling when the trees are snow covered and glistening and I think things like, "wouldn't it be awesome to be pulled by horses in a sleigh through the forest."  Can you imagine it?  The clippitiy-clop of horses hooves, us all snuggled under a warm, wool blanket in the sleigh, hot chocolate in hand, fur hats, crisp air clouded with each breath.  And for the heck of it, throw a unicorn sighting into the image just because everything is so freakin' perfect.


Long trips provide a lot of time for thinking.  This trip was particularly quiet because both girls were plugged in to their new headphones.  Now this is exactly what technology was made for.  Quiet peaceful travelling.  And because all our road trips are long, there is still enough time to talk, play eye spy, enjoy the scenery, read a book, think and reflect, have a nap, argue with your sister AND watch Barbie's Perfect Christmas Movie multiple times.  



The great thing about not staying at the hotel that looks like a castle is that we get to enjoy looking at it from our regular hotel and make up stories about castle life and how Rapunzel could throw her hair down from the top and we could climb up and see what was inside.




If clippity-clopping through the forest in a horse-drawn sleigh was only imaginative perfection then here is the real thing.   Right next to that castle was a skating rink in the park and we just happened to have our blades with us. 



Snow-covered trees, down-town traffic passing-by, music from the overhead speakers, my girls, my husband, our anniversary...it was perfect.  I've never been to Central Park in New York but I hear they have a skating rink there too. I can't imagine it being anything superior to this little rink next to the river on Spadina Crescent with Rapunzel's castle lingering in the background.



I know I often write about all the "perfect' things in our lives.  I choose pictures of smiling girls and talk about the things that I just love, love, LOVE about them all the time.  And I don't know who all reads this little blog of mine but those who know us are well aware that our lives are not picture perfect.  Our skating adventure in our pretend Central Park had its share of tears over snowsuits that didn't feel right and disputes over who got to sit on the chair and then who got to push the chair.  But all of these obstacles are like the free space on the bingo card.  They are a given.  Everyone has them.  They are not unique to me and my family.
 


I purposely choose to focus on the good, the silver lining or whatever you want to call it.  I don't do it to falsely portray some sort of perfect family but because I truly believe in the power of words.  Simply that if you make the best of situations, if you can find the good, if you can learn from from the lesson, if you focus on the positive, if you do these things, good things will happen to you in return.  I believe this.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed with frustrations that are out of my control and a good "venting" session is the obvious cure.  Because words have power and can carry weight, unloading the not so helpful ones onto trusted ears is all it takes sometimes to get back to finding the good and joy in the little things.



Little things like the sound of skate blades cutting their edges on "real" ice, kissing rosy cheeks and red noses, and meeting up with great friends afterwards to celebrate the New Year.  Perfection.

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