Well....a bright shiney New Year is upon us! I hope it is promising to be a good one for all of you.

 I wanted to take a moment to recap a few little things from the end of my own 2010. I don't know if any of you had a chance to catch the Lunar Eclipse we had right before Christmas, but it was spectacular. It had rained all day here in Sacramento, and I had given up hope of seeing the darkest night we were going to have for over 300 years. It was the longest night of the year and an eclipse at the same time? Well...there was a knock on my bedroom door at 11:00 p.m. and my daughter said there was a break in the storm and the moon was as clear as a bell. We rousted everyone in the house to go out to the back yard. My daughters had already gotten out blankets for us all, so we settled in for the show. It was peaceful and beautiful, and we were all bundled up together. It was perhaps our most perfect moment of the holiday season. The moon was a full and bright disc. And then the eclipse was complete! I had no idea what to expect....I thought perhaps it would be just a dark grey. But just when I thought the moon would blink out, it became even more clear and more real. It looked just like a red balloon floating maybe 50 feet up in the air....so much more 3 dimensional than when it is fully ablaze. I felt like I could touch it. 

 This is the best my little point and shoot could do, but do you see what I mean? Sometimes a new perspective can bring even more clarity.

There were other holiday delights as well....like when the doggies got their new bed...

.... Which Nullah claimed for her own...as well as all of the toys...

 There was my daughter's first visit home from college...she treated us all to her brilliant baking skills...

 She is back at school now....I miss her so....

And then some of the gifts that I spent hours looking through on Christmas Day....

 A beautiful must have for any design library, The World of Madeleine Castaing