Paynes Prarie Preserve State Park is one of our local gems. Nestled between Gainesville and Micanopy, the prairie is over 22,000 acres and contains amazing wildlife, including alligators, wild horses, bison, and numerous bird species. This trail, the one we walked on this last Saturday in December, is the La Chua Trail. We capped off our 5 mile hike with dinner and drinks at Satchel’s Pizza.

It was a most perfect Saturday.

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Our family’s calendar is hung in the tiny walkway between our kitchen and dining room. I love this spot in the house, even though it’s mostly only good for passing through. The hall is sunny, thanks to the northern-facing window overlooking our side yard. I have two little cat figurines there in the windowsill, and occasionally a piece of art class sculpture that my son or daughter made will find a place of honor there. The naked window faces the pantry, and I constantly remind my kids and husband to keep the pantry door closed so that it will stay cool and dark. They rarely listen, so I shut the door behind them.

A few years ago, I hung our calendar, a big monthly flip calendar, always of my choosing, on the bare wall to the left of the pantry door. The calendar I choose each year is beautiful, and this is why I have chosen it. My calendar’s beauty – and its promise of much anticipated occasions and events to come – gives me reason to pause in the sunlight, lingering for a few moments while I glance over the month’s daily boxes and my scribblings within them.

Every year on January 1st, without fail, I perform the ritual changing of the calendar.

This afternoon, while the kids were occupied with a game of pretend involving dolls and horses, and while my husband was away visiting his father in the hospital (he’s improving, thankfully), I took the old calendar down and pulled out my new one, pristine in its shrink wrap. I removed the wrap from the 2013 calendar and placed it on the table beside the 2012 calendar. Beginning with January, I transferred important birthdays to the new calendar, marking each with a little balloon. Month by month, I filled in school holidays, upcoming trips, and anniversaries.

As I flipped the pages of each calendar, one month at a time, I contemplated the year that just ended. 2012 was filled with many wonderful moments and experiences, many of which I’ve posted about here in this space. My travels took me to New York City, Austin, Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Atlanta. We went on our first cruise as a family, and we took the kids to California for the first time. My husband and I celebrated fifteen years of marriage over the summer, and in the fall, our son started kindergarten and our daughter started third grade. And somehow, despite feeling several years  younger, I turned forty along the way.

The year had its share of heartache and sadness, as each year tends to have. For me, though, the good parts outweighed and shined brighter than the bad parts.

My 2013 calendar is no longer unmarked, but neither is it filled. Each month holds promise of things to come and chances for memories to be made. And while not all of the events on the calendar will be significant — certainly, a trip to the eye doctor is no cause for celebration — there may be some gems that wind up on there, written in black ink as time goes by.

I will spend cherished time with family and with friends. There will be trips, both for work and for fun, and there may be a party or two or three. There will be meals cooked and shared with people I love. There will be personal growth and inspiration and creativity. (I am counting on these.) There will be love and joy, and there is likely to be a smattering of sadness and tears – but that’s okay. That’s the way of life. That is living.

Mostly, there is potential in this new year, 2013. Potential and possibility for wonderfulness.

The house is dark and quiet, and besides the two cats, I’m the only one up. This isn’t entirely unusual, but it is odd for a “stay home day,” as my son calls any day he doesn’t have to go to school. My husband and I have been spoiled by two children who finally – finally! – will let us sleep past 7 o’clock on weekend mornings, so it’s not uncommon for us to sleep until 8 these days. I know the television is a ruinous thing, but I’m grateful for its babysitting capacity those mornings.

Christmas Eve is here, and my plans to relax have been thwarted by procrastination. I had hoped that the wrapping would be completed, but my husband and I have just been too darn busy. We’ve resorted to sharing a document on Google Drive with our list of gifts for the kids, and we email each other with changes or suggestions. It’s all very 21st century – and not nearly as much fun, or efficient, as you might think.

Today, though, will be an old fashioned type Christmas Eve. You know, the type with some screaming at the kids to GO OUTSIDE, PLEASE, NOW – so I can wrap gifts in privacy. And the type with some stressing out about the fact that we still haven’t purchased our turkey for tomorrow’s Christmas dinner. And the “Honey, can you please vacuum and move your shoes while I fold this laundry so I can get it off my dining room table?” type.

But those are all very normal things around here. All par for the course.