HAPPY NEW YEAR ?

So here it is, January 2nd, and I am still stuck in October of 2008. I had hopes. Lots of them, actually. I was going to create a holiday season so spectacular that Ms. Martha Stewart Her Very Self would call me on the telephone to beg for hints as to how I managed to pull it all off. I would bake and decorate and stitch and clean and organize and solve world peace and make lovely gifts and send perfect cards and do random acts of kindness all over the damn place.

Alas, it was not to be.

I didn't have a holiday season this year. Now I know that fact will shock and awe you, but brace yourselves. I spent Christmas alone, wearing eighteen year old sweatpants and eating a bag of stale Cheetos. There was also a warm diet Coke involved (caffeine free, even). New Year's was slightly more festive: three sips of champagne and then a blinding sinus migrane that will let up eventually. Probably in mid-June. I am hopeful.

Not celebrating this year wasn't a negative thing....it just was. November and December were here before I knew it, and then I found myself sitting in the Happy Chair on December 28th wondering what the hell all the fuss was about (religious meaning and the deeper connections to God and the universe aside, of course). In my 42 years on the planet I never dreamed that forgetting to have the Holidays would be so....well...um...easy. It was easy, I tell ya', and if it weren't for the massive guilt I'd consider forgetting to have Christmas every year.

And then a magic thing happened. I checked emails and glanced at my blog and I was blown back in my chair by the lovely wishes that were coming my way from all over the world. And then there were gifts! A package from Ms. Laura J. Perin! A package from Ms. Mary Smith! A package from Ms. Vonna Pfeiffer! I boo-hooed with the opening of each and was so touched that stitchy sisters would remember me in their holiday wishes. I am, as always, simply gobsmacked by the kindness of "strangers". (Formal thank you note are forthcoming, I promise).

So now I'm knee deep into 2009 and am determined to ENGAGE. I wish I could tell you what this will involve, but I'm pretty sure that there will be treadmilling. And lots of things written in books. And attention-paying to important stuff (like health and money and the state of the union, etc.). I would imagine that there will be broccoli. And a few non-fiction books. And fiber. Lots of things that will make me a much better person and the world a much better place.

As for stitching...which is, after all, the reason why we're here....I'm afraid that I haven't one damn clue as to what I want and/or need to accomplish this year. I've traveled up to the studio twice now to get a clue, but nothing came of either trip. The third time will be the charm. I just feel it in my bones.

So allow me to say that I do indeed hope that you have nothing but wonderful things in this new year. I do indeed hope that you are happy and healthy and well, and that you manage to stay warm and safe and dry all of the time. I hope your cupboards are full, your family is thriving, and your life is exactly what you wish it to be. I hope that you never know sadness or despair and that magic happens for you daily. I also hope that your needles and threads and linens and things make you feel perfectly perfect in every way and that the love of the stitchy universe will fill you with joy.

So pass the Cheetos and let's get on with it, shall we?