Welcome Back, Blogger!

In gearing up for the New Year, along with all of the crazy resolution talk that accompanies it, my dusty old Tribute to Life came first to mind. I have undoubtedly missed the familiar white screen with its snazzy blue, white and orange banner at the top. But, the adjustment to full-time work and disillusionment with the non-academic life came as a shock, sending me into a brief yet all-encompassing stalemate. The past couple of months are a blurred mix of waking up, going to work, talking to way too many people on the phone, coming home exhausted, skipping dinner for a few extra minutes of pure couch time and bedtime. Sound boring? Well, it was! Interspersed in there was a trip to Seattle, which was very cool, but not nearly enough to compensate for the incredible drop in life excitement.

I am happy to report, however, that I have fully recovered and plan to get everything back on track (or to join my track in the case of new and great things). Probably the largest lesson learned is that transitions are definitely not about shedding the old and jumping into the new. It's about retaining much of the old and finding ways to incorporate the new. I got this all wrong. But, as my boss has told me many times, we unfortunately learn and retain the most in times of mistakes and lessons learned from those mistakes. Since I'm all about this human train of martyrdom, I guess I not only believe him but have experienced first hand how this works.

There will be plenty of blogs to catch up on all of that...but, I would like this blog to commemorate the incredible joy that comes from having kids around Christmas. This is not my secret blog code for "I want kids and now feel my biological clock ticking," it's merely a realization I fully experienced last night and today. My niece is 4 now while my nephew is 18 months. The two of them together, opening gifts and tinkering with all of their new toys, was nothing short of fulfilling. Their pure looks of happiness and excitement was all it took to complete my holiday. The gifts I received were great, but nothing held quite the impact of their displays. Probably my two favorite parts were when Sydni got tired of waiting for my brother and I to finish our X-Box game of Madden 2003, plopping down on my lap, blocking my view and refusing to move until I handed the controller over to her. It was similar to the moment she came to me last night during the adult gift exchange and wanted so badly to open my gifts. Thinking back to how much I was exactly like her as a kid, I handed them over. Not only did I get the joy of watching her...I got the gifts in the end!

Favorite moment number two was definitely Seth wanting to be shown how to play with some of his toys. He would patiently hand them over, looking at me, without any words, and just watched as I demonstrated. He would then calmly take back over like a pro. He also is the type that loves playing but loves staying close. So, as his play partners would move about, he would get up, move closer to them, and plop down next to their feet, legs or whatever was closest and resume his focused play. Fantastic to watch, I tell you.

This concludes the Christmas rambling. The title, by the way, is stolen from the late great "Welcome Back, Kodder!" which I saw for the very first time over this holiday weekend. What can I say? The greatest Christmas gifts don't come in packages at all. They're improvised moments--untouched by human modification.