Hope you have been enjoying a happy holiday season. We have been doing a lot of celebrating around here with food, treats, family and friends. From Thanksgiving on is a pretty festive time for our family with both my kids’ birthdays and all the school, community and family celebrations. The more quiet week before New Year’s is always a favorite of mine.

I love a new year and what feels like a fresh start, if only in theory. MAV and I will be taking a two week break from this space to get in gear for many new exciting ventures including our fourth year of 3191 Quarterly (subscriptions are still available, but are ending very soon…while we have worked to make the issues even more affordable this year, we can not control postage costs—subscriptions save you those costs). We will return here on January 10, 2014. You can check in with us on Instagram in the meantime, however!

I have just a few New Year’s resolutions. I have been thinking of the things that make me the happiest, most balanced, me that I can be.

1. Be outside. Every day. In any weather. For 15 minutes or 15 hours—whatever I can manage.

2. Read. Books with pages—not screens. Start carrying a novel in my bag everywhere I go like old times.

3. Water. Drink lots of it. Swim in it. Take long baths. At every opportunity, watch it trickle by, fall over a cliff or spread out over the horizon.

Happy New Year!

—SCB