a happy new year... my, how things have changed!

"the greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions,
not our circumstances."
~martha washington


greetings, all!

popping in this new year's eve to wish you a truly happy year in 2012!


i just said to mr. b.,
"i don't know how we could top what happened to us in 2011."
{meaning, what could possibly be better in my life
than the birth of our first child...
especially after thinking for so long
that we would never have one... or any.}
but he said, "sure we can...
we'll get to know him more and more...
he'll get to know us, and we'll begin to communicate more and more."
okay... true... i agree.
but still.
i certainly don't think i will ever know, again,
the thrill that it was to give birth to our beautiful, hoped-for, healthy baby.
even if we were to ever have another,
it's that first experience that is unlike anything.

the three of us are spending yet another holiday quietly together,

all nestled up where it's warm and cozy.

we've never been ones to do a lot of partying on new year's eve.

we certainly always tried to stay up late... sometimes even all night, if we could.
{oh, i miss those all-night moviethons!}

but there will be none of that this year.

we're old folks with a very young baby boy.

bedtime will probably be very close to the sound of 

"...three, two, one

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!"...

perhaps only just slightly on the other side of it.

anyway, mr. b. is cooking steak and lobster tails,

isaac is in bed for the night,

and i sit here and type my post for the new year.

when i added the words

"happy new year"

to my bokeh photo above,

it made me think a lot about that word... happy... or happiness.

there are probably a million different definitions for it out there.

ask any one person,

and their definition will be different from the next.

and if you don't believe me,

just look at the wide array of definitions quoted from

just a handful of well-known people below.

i may not completely agree with each quote

or the person that said it,

but there are several quotes i really like and do agree with.

and it's clear that in all of them {or most}

there is a universal theme...

happiness does not lie in things we own or consume,

but rather in giving of ourselves and having a life that possesses meaning,

no matter what our circumstances.

i always say to people

"if you aren't happy without {fill in the blank... i.e., a husband, a baby, friends, a job, money, a perfect body},

you won't be happy with it, either."

i think you'll find that is the theme of many of these quotes.

anyway, here are the quotes.

there are so many more that i wanted to include.

but to keep this post a bit shorter than it had to be,

i limited it to these...

gratitude is one of the sweet shortcuts to finding peace of mind and happiness inside. no matter what is going on outside of us, there's always something we could be grateful for. 
~barry neil kaufman 

joy can be real only if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness. 
~leo tolstoy

each morning when i open my eyes i say to myself: i, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. i can choose which it shall be. yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. i have just one day, today, and i'm going to be happy in it. 
~groucho marx

optimist: person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness. 
~mark twain 

if you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes. 
~andrew carnegie 

most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. 
~abraham lincoln 

there is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state to another, nothing more. he who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. we must have felt what it is to die, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life. 
~alexandre dumas 

my life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet i'm happy. i can't figure it out. what am i doing right? 
~charles schulz 

to be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. 
~bertrand russell 

people say that money is not the key to happiness, but i always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made. 
~joan rivers 

gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy—because we will always want to have something else or something more. 
~david steindl-rast 

the basic thing is that everyone wants happiness, no one wants suffering. and happiness mainly comes from our own attitude, rather than from external factors. if your own mental attitude is correct, even if you remain in a hostile atmosphere, you feel happy. 
~tenzin gyatso 

but what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? 
~albert camus 

the most i can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. i have no wealth to bestow on him. if he knows that i am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. is not friendship divine in this?
~henry david thoreau 

i don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing i do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. 
~albert achweitzer

happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. 
~denis waitley 

if you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden. he will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. 
~w. beran wolfe 

happiness cannot come from without. it must come from within. it is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves. 
~helen keller 

happiness, it seems to me, consists of two things: first, in being where you belong, and second—and best—in comfortably going through everyday life... that is, having had a good night's sleep and not being hurt by new shoes. 
~theodor fontane

i especially like that last quote...

it's so apropos for us right now.
isaac is not sleeping very well these days... up several times a night.
we were more rested when we first came home from the hospital
than we are now since he's been eating solids.
we think it's because he has begun to teeth recently.
this too shall pass.
but, oh, how we long for a stretch of sleep that lasts more than three hours!
six hours would do wonders for us!
it's amazing how difficult it is to remain positive about all things
when you have not had a decent night sleep in months.
it takes all you have to not be annoyed easily
at things that you can easily let go of when you are well-rested.
*sigh*


well, as long as we are on the subject of happy,
here are a couple things making me happy tonight...
or at least making me smile.

+

=

no... it's not an egg nog scented candle.
{i know... it sort of looks like a candle, doesn't it?}

it's my own drink concoction...

butterscotch egg nog.
{perhaps this is not an original drink, but i have never had one,
and i thought of it on my own... so i call it my own.}

it has just the right amount {a splash} of warming butterscotch liqueur

to give me that warm new year cheer

without having too much alcohol content for nursing isaac.

i'd normally have some champagne,

but this will do just fine in its place this year.

here is something else that is bringing a smile to my face.
the way isaac looked tonight in his new hat...
knit for him by his grandma.

i did not get the best pics,
because it was rather dark in the room when i took them.
but he's precious enough to still be cute,
even in a not-so-hot photo from mama.

well, as this year fades away
and the new one takes its place,
i wish you true peace and joy and happiness as the days unfold.


so long, twenty-eleven!
i love what you had in store for me...
especially on june 15th and every day since!


welcome, twenty-twelve!!!