New Year

I love a new year and the whole idea of new beginnings and starting fresh, especially after the craziness of the whole holiday season, and especially when my birthday follows soon after (which has happened now every year since I can remember)!

Unfortunately, though, I have to say that this time I'm just pushing through January as quickly as possible. If I could just wish it away in one breath, I'd do it! It's especially gray without this sight studying on my bedroom floor:

This is the first birthday I've had to celebrate without Travis, as he is away on a clinical rotation, but he thoughtfully sent me an awesome birthday package! It included such rarities as Grandma Sycamore bread and chocolate-covered cinnamon bears, which are luxuries that for some reason are only found in Utah. I was elated when I opened this package, which contained all edible items! I didn't know whether to be flattered that he knows the way to my heart so well, or embarrassed that this is the way to my heart!

 (Including cough drops because, for me, no January is complete without spending most of it with a miserable cold!) 

Additionally, I was spoiled by my friends here and by my friends and family far from here. Last night several of my friends kidnapped me for a girls' dinner out, and we ended up with quite a crowd! We're all looking to escape the dreary shut-in world of January, it seems! And of course I received enough beautiful over-the-phone-birthday-songs to last me at least most of the way through the year! I love that part - it's my favorite! Another dear friend invited our family to dinner tonight and baked me a birthday cake, which I got to decorate myself, as per their family's tradition! Just trust me when I say it was beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful cakes, we spent the evening at our ward's "It's Great to be 8" baptism preview, for all the 7-year-olds who will be turning 8 this year. We have 19 of them on our current roster! I planned it and baked for it, and the cupcakes and the 8-shaped cake I made and decorated were so lovely that I didn't even have the desire to take a picture of them. Oh, and we also served a little dessert I like to call two-doughnuts-on-a-stick! (Which, if you use your imagination and maybe squint a little, looks like an 8!) You will again just have to take my word for the stunning beauty of this culinary array.

And here is an obligatory birthday photo of me, simply to document that I have in fact reached *mmblejmble* years of age, blurry because it was taken by one of my daughters. (I don't know which one because they were taking turns with the camera!)

But also pictured here is probably my FAVORITE birthday present! Sadly I can't open it until March.

In the spirit of new beginnings, one advantage to the short, dark, dreary days of January is that we are usually awake to see the occasional amazing sunrise like this:

And, in the spirit of total and utter randomness, here is what happens when Travis and I are both at home for winter break and our girls decide that our cell phones are secret communication devices for the two of them.