And here's my reason for saying that... the holidays just seem to extend themselves. New Year's Day and beyond, there was extended family in town and just one event after another - all the Christmas things that didn't happen in December were put on the calendar ASAP in January, but that extended the celebrating well into the first week of the new year. Then our first anniversary was on the 5th, and just because of the way everything worked out, it was easier for us to get away a few days after the actual anniversary date, and so we did. 3 wonderful days and 4 relaxing nights with my love in another town a few hours away. After the absolute craziness of the past two months, it was just what we needed to get caught up on sleep, communication, and fun memories. But that meant we were getting home on a Friday, then there was a weekend, then finally a new week started and it felt like it was THEN that the new year was starting too, when according to the calendar, we were actually halfway in the first month already!
Yes, that's a trend that I can see extending throughout my life, just because of the placement of our anniversary! Also, I've come to the conclusion that I enjoy celebrating anniversaries WAY more than celebrating birthdays, which is something if you know me. :) And I really like having an anniversary right at the beginning of a new year... when the calendar is fresh and the schedule is back to routine, it's the perfect time to reflect on your life as a couple and reconnect a little bit.
We went to Duluth, where I have never been before. Actually, I knew nothing about it other than faint recollections of mountain men and some sort of mining history. Isn't it on a lake somewhere? Isn't there an outdoors catalog-only store named after it? We stayed in a beautiful bed & breakfast which was actually a restored mansion. Reviews on the interwebs helped us pick out fabulous food stops and we did just the right amount of touristy things that we felt we made the most of our time, but still have things we want to do next time we go back. Duluth has a rich history, quite literally since in the early 1900s, there were more millionaires living there than anywhere else in the world. There are a lot of interesting things to do in the summertime, but we enjoyed our winter visit immensely, having one cold but sunny day to drive around, one warmer but cloudy day to get outside and do some exploring, and one rainy day to go shopping.
So here's to a new year, just fresh beginning for me. I'm already loving the 'freshness' of it all... the Christmas decor down and a little sprucing up around the apartment, back to the normal schedule, starting to look ahead to the summer busy-ness and making plans. :)