Daydreams, Gingersnaps

My hands smell like cloves and cinnamon, and soon the house will, too. Gingersnap dough is cooling so we can roll it into little balls and dip them in sugar and bake them. Cookies were always my favorite part of Christmas, except with only three of us many cookies go to waste, so in recent years we've stopped making so many. But gingersnaps are always a favorite.

Yesterday found me in Staunton, then Charlottesville to hear the music of Zach Laliberte. He's a friend of Zan and Lys, and he had booked a gig at a wonderful little restaurant/bar called The Maya. Best mac and cheese ever, seriously. Also, fantastic ambiance and, with Zach there, amazing music. If you haven't already seen it, you should check out the music video Zan and Lys made of his song Daydream.

There are moments where everything seems perfectly at ease and all I can think and feel is happiness. The past two days have been full of such moments. Last night, listening to Zach play and sing in a room filled with people I knew or wanted to know, with the lights low, candles flickering on the exposed brick, a dry cider at hand-- I felt lulled finally into a calm which has eluded me the past few weeks. And after he finished playing we all talked of around the world-- India, China, South Africa-- things I want to see someday, and which seem so easy to make a reality, when someone else talks of them freely. Then home through the cold, and the moon bright on the snow in the drive; a house full of warm kittens (almost cats now) and chocolates and even more easy conversation.

And even today was filled with beyond-good moments; a morning of milky coffee with lots of sugar, a funny Youtube video, laughter and the most beautiful, perfect Christmas gift.

My heart has rarely felt so full as it has these past two days.