Today is a red-letter day for more than just its date. Today, I finished my first short story since Mr Darcy was born! It's my brother Dave's Christmas story (yes, I know, it's late...luckily, both of my brothers are understanding!), and it turned out slightly differently than expected. He asked for a story about a traveling circus coming into town, and as I was sitting staring at my Moleskine notebook about a week ago, hoping for inspiration, the first line of the story popped straight into my head, the main character speaking to me loud and clear. Hooray!

Unfortunately, there's no traveling circus involved...but hey, there is a traveling salesman, so that's almost the same thing, right? Right??? Luckily, Dave agreed, when I checked it with him a few days ago. I am very, very lucky in my brothers. :) I've been plugging away at the story ever since, and yesterday, Patrick was hugely generous in holding the sleeping MrD on his shoulder through our entire two-hour cafe trip without a single break (and without a single peep of protest about the fact that his poor shoulder was seizing up!), which meant that I had my first major coffeeshop writing session in the last three months. Armed with all that luscious writing time, I finished the first draft longhand. With more baby-holding help this morning, I managed to write a new, better ending and finally type it all in. Best of all, I loved writing this story, and I really hope Dave will like reading it, too. Yay for a perfect start to the New Year!

And all of that meant that in today's cafe trip, I got to just relax, read Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book (SOOOO good!), play with Mr Darcy and his fantastic firefly, and take time to feel so grateful for the most amazing gift Patrick and I got in 2008:


Happy New Year, everybody!