This holiday season was the first we celebrated with our new babe.  Now a family of three I find my husband and I are delighting in sharing the sweetness of the season with our little boy.  We decorated the house with sweet evergreens and lights he loves to watch as he rolls around on the floor in front of the ever-burning wood stove.  He marvels at the Hanukkah candles we lit for eight nights as we chanted the ancient prayers of his father’s father’s father’s.  He loved going to the forest for a long hike in the sun and snow, little does he know we came home with a tiny Christmas tree not much taller than him!!  The glow and sparkle of the season really seemed to enchant him fully and I lament as it may be the last Christmas of his life where the materialism is completely meaningless to him.  Alas…so it goes.  But it was magical to be able to share all that we love with him and we will continue to focus on the light of the season, creating meaningful traditions together.  One of our new favorite family traditions is going to the Wildlife Refugee in Bosque Del Apache in south central NM.  It is an amazing experience where you drive out to the wetlands in the dark to greet the dawn in 23 degree weather and have thousands & thousands of birds take flight right over your head.  Truly incredible and though it only last about 30 seconds, brings me to tears every time!!  To be humbled by the sheer beauty of the world and magnificence of creation is the best gift I could receive this season, every season.  It felt like such a blessed way to welcome the new year, and though our Christmas was quiet and cozy, it was a good cleansing for us to move forward into the new year with humblness together.  I recommend you all go see for yourselves, or at least witness some simple miracle of the natural world with your family this blessed season.  HAPPY NEW YEAR