Prelude

As many others have written so also do I:  with the start of a new year I start a new blog.  Will it last through the coming weeks and months?  Will I review my posts and wonder what made me think I could do such a thing?  Only time will tell.

This New Year 2009 is a new year in many ways for myself and family.  I have returned home from a unique experience: 5 entire days with my husband and extended family.  No computer distractions, electronic games, or news programs on the television.  Just my husband, another wonderful mother, and myself, our children, and our grandchildren together in a cabin up in the mountains.  Sun and snow to revel in during the day and meals and games to share together in the evenings.  The memories are precious to me - I hope that the younger generations also carry away memories of special moments spent with their family.  Hopefully they have also carried away a better understanding of their sisters and brothers, both by blood and by marriage.  We are truely a blended family mix now, with wonderful stories and experiences to share.  As diverse as our backgrounds, religious, and political beliefs are we still share the ties of love that bind a family together.

This brief family vacation was a much-needed injection of fun, laughter, and of course, stress that serves as a prelude to a year that will be full of many changes, good and bad, for family members in the unfolding year.  These first brief notes will hopefully serve as a prelude to the song of our lives to come.