Happy Valentine’s Day

This beautiful cake is from Hello Naomi.

Although I was initially approaching today with something akin to dread, something happened this morning to change my feelings. My daughter had snuck into my bed at some point in the middle of the night, and woke me up this morning with an enormous hug and many kisses wishing me a happy Valentine’s Day. In an instant she made me realize that although I don’t, right now, have “romantic” love in my life, that I do an abundance of love within my little family of my daughter, me, and our cat. She made us wear matching outfits today, which I was more than happy to oblige as long as she kept smiling, and out the door we went, making up Valentine’s Day songs dressed in our white jeans and pink sweaters. As soon as I get out of work, we are rolling up our sleeves and baking something special, and having our very own Valentine’s Day party.

I wish all of you a beautiful day filled with love, whatever kind of love you have in your lives, and more happiness than you know what to do with!

Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy New Year!

I wish each and every one of you an amazing 2012.

May it be wonderful beyond your expectations.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

A very merry, warm, and wonderful Christmas to everyone out there in the blogosphere.

‘Tis the season… for a little more astronomy!

Out of the many presents that I got for my daughter this year, the one I think we’re both most excited about is a telescope. She’s been asking for one for months now, and “Santa” finally decided to get her (and her mom) a pretty nice reflector telescope for Christmas. In anticipation of this gift we’ve been looking at astronomy pictures almost daily, and today we came across this one, again courtesy of Phil Plait (click the link as he offers, as usual, a great explanation of what it is we’re seeing here). As soon as she saw it she yelled out “It’s Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer!” And indeed, it really does look like him!

Click to see it at full resolution.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Eve.

A Wonderful Thanksgiving

The turkey is in the oven, the pumpkin pudding is cooling, and the table is set.  Finally a moment to sit and relax before getting ready for dinner.  For most of us, Thanksgiving is a day of family and enormous quantities of food, and yes, that’s part of what makes this holiday one of my favorites.  But it’s also a day where we should stop and really be grateful for all that we have.  It may not seem like much, specially in today’s world, but if we stop and really think about it, for most of us, our lives are pretty darn good.  I have a job that (most of the time) I really do love and that allows me to think and learn on a daily basis, I have a family that, despite their peculiarities, are a fine group of people who I know love and support me, I have a daughter who is smart, healthy, funny, and strong, and a relationship, where I feel loved and free to love. I have free time to spend with the people I love, and to read the books that are such an important part of my life. In short, despite my daily worries and fears, I am truly thankful for that I have, all who I know, and all that I get to do.

So in that spirit, I just wanted to wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving.  May your evening be filled with good food, great wine, and wonderful company.