new year.

2011 was a big year for many of our peeps, us included. we saw good friends return stateside. we welcomed babies, we looked on with love as men and women we'd been friends with for years said 'i will' and walked into the glorious mess that is marriage. 2011 was full of travel and good things and new experiences and joy and sorrow, above all, it was busy. very busy. but new year's weekend, blessedly, was not.

stateside friends returned for an (all-too) brief time, and as has happened so many times, parents of our good friends opened their home and their hearts to a gaggle of us. my love-tank was so filled at the end of that weekend, my stomach groaning from the unbelievably good meals that seems to just appear, as if by magic, from the kitchen. it was a weekend in the countryside, complete with sheep grazing in the pasture outside our bedroom window and talks of old memories and new blessings and how christ is working it all for good while standing in kitchens and warming ourselves by the aga. it was walks along the rolling hills in wellie boots while we recounted the goodness of our god, while we mourned the broken parts of lives, while we longed for a completeness that will always seem a little elusive this side of majesty. it was tea and card games and immense, joyful laughter, because these people are your people, they understand you, and love you regardless. it was a quiet weekend, and the perfect start to the new year.