A new year it is.

And this is how it ended. A night that, for most, is loud and hectic. This night, for us, went as smoothly as humanly possible...and for us it was perfect.

Our New Year's Eve plans had not been finalized until the morning of. We have a typical celebration location, which ended up being cancelled. There were other options. But, in our better judgement, we decided to "eat in".

Now this does not always work out as planned. We have tried on numerous occasions to save time and money by making our own dinner (different and special of course!) after our children are in bed, and simply being with one another.

But this night, a blessing was bestowed, and the unusual happened.

The children were all nestled in nicely as I prepared the usual suspects for an appetizer! It was 9:00pm and our stomachs were begin to rumble. As Scott tucked the last in our eyes would connect and have a look of hope. "would they really stay in bed?", I thought.

As Scott re-enters the kitchen we begin to talk. A calm conversation. Un-rushed. Relaxed and flowing as if we had just picked up a previous conversation. It was really, really nice. At about 9:30pm we began preparing our Lemon Butter Sauce and boiling the water for the Shrimp & Lobster Ravioli.

We again caught each others eyes and began to discuss the miracle that no children had come out of their rooms or even made a sound! Seriously...this is a miracle! Out typical evening is not so mundane and simply put...is a long and tiring process.

On we went...chatting peacefully and preparing a dinner in which the aroma alone caused me to salivate! Bubbly was in our glasses and our conversation followed suit as we began laughing and having a wonderful time. It was after 10pm before we began, but it was well worth the wait!

We rang in the New Year by sipping on our champagne and watching a movie snuggled up on our sofa. Content with our evening and our connection.....what a sweet ending it was!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!