Catching up: Christmas on the Beach

It's been forever since I posted, but it's time to catch up! We'll start with the holiday. Florian was in Switzerland with his family,

so I spent my Christmas on Dewey Beach with mine. My sister rented a big house for her family, my dad, Uncle Johnny, Aunt Nancy, my cousin and her kids, 

so I got a nice little cottage just for me and my dogs so Genghis and Fozzie didn't have to spend Christmas glaring and lunging at each other. 

What a joyful time. Up in the morning to walk along the beach 

and enjoy the sunrise, 

let the dogs sniff and roll around,

and meet a large, rusty pipe used for dredging sand, 

that for some reason Dahlia decided was the best thing she had ever seen. 

Drop off the dogs to nap at the cottage, then off to the main house to make food and hang out with my human family. 

Brussels sprouts--Johnny's favorite!

It is so relaxing to be right by the ocean. 

To look out to the horizon and take in all that space, 

let the mind relax on the vast, blue peacefulness, 

and let the waves wash over all those jagged edges left by a challenging year. 

The best pictures were of the sunrises, 

but the best moments were at night, on the balcony with Johnny and the astronomy binoculars, where he showed me the Orion Nebula. I spent the following evenings walking on the beach, dragging the dogs along long past the point where they were tired and wanted to go sleep, because I could not get enough. 

Just the feeling of being alone with them, listening to the waves, under the bright stars, walking and walking.

Then lying down one night, looking up just in time to see a shooting star. 

Magical. I'm going to just take it as a sign that 2017 is going to be better than we think, and act as though ongoing principled, peaceful engagement and activism can make a difference!