Another Year, Come and Gone . . A New Year Now Comes

The New Year

Another year has circled to its close,
Another rose blown to eternal rest;
Sweet Memory, farther fading, sweeter grows--
The Wind sweeps on, that once the Rose caressed.
Another year! Ah, have we nearer pressed
To that far goal whereon our aim is set?
Another year! Have we perchance confessed
The lasting bitterness of vain regret?
Yet still the dew-pearl decks the rose's breast!

A year has fled, its triumphs and its pain
Borne far away on Time's all-sweeping crest;
Another following, pressed on amain,--
The Rose-tree in fresh bloom is ever dressed.
Though one rose die--ah, was that rose the best?
So in the coming year let no dismay
At Life's unkindly aspect frighten, lest
The tear we shed today dim yesterday;
For still the dew-pearl decks the rose's breast!

L'Envoi.

Not was, but will be! This is Life's behest;
This year, not was, but will be, one more test;
And ever, though the ages fade away,
The clear-eyed dew-pearl decks the rose's breast!

~H. Bedford Jones

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Good morning, dear friends!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful, blessed Christmas, however celebrated and kept~

Our Christmas was a quiet one, spent at home in the morning, and at my mother's in the afternoon.

Cowboy Frank sure likes his new get-up!

And Evangeline is now "The Little Young Woman Who Lived in a Shoe"!

On Christmas Eve (And Christmas Day at Grandma's) we were treated to a performance of the Nutcracker by the children~




Followed by a live Nativity, narrated by Mr. Graham~





Followed by our attempt at a Tasha Tudor-style Nativity in the woods (a.k.a. back yard)~

(Let me tell you, lighting lots of candles when it's six degrees outside is no small feat!)

Followed by a long winter's nap!

Now we have begun packing away the little Christmas things that we have enjoyed the past month (except our little elf-men, who now smile at us from the computer top)~

(How can we resist their impish faces?)

And are looking forward to a new beginning with the New Year~A chance to look sweetly back on the good times, and to learn from the perhaps not so good times. May we all be blessed with a freshness of spirit, with joy, and with peace, as we bid yet another year farewell!

Love,

Marqueta