Well, we’ve made it.  When we get up tomorrow morning, we will have made it through the darkest (although not yet the coldest) part of the year and winter will have begun.  From here, the days get longer, and we begin to move, however slowly, towards spring again.  We’ve held the darkness at bay with our lights and our candles, and all around the world, people will be holding festivals which celebrate (overtly or not) making through the darkness and coming back towards the light.

I like winter.  I don’t mind the cold, or even the darkness.  But even so, the thought of waking up to sunlight instead of darkness is appealing.  I’ll be grateful when Benjamin begins to remember that the sleep he has at night and the sleep he has during the day are different (right now the poor kid wakes up from his naps asking if today is a school day).

There’s a lot of winter yet ahead of us.  There will still be plenty of cold (and hopefully some snow).  It’ll take a few weeks, yet, for the sunrises to even start coming earlier, and months before it feels like anything has changed.  But it’s coming.

I feel so fortunate here, in my cozy, warm apartment with my family.  Tonight, I’ll turn on the lights on my Christmas tree and celebrate turning the corner of winter.  We’ve made it through the deepest part of the darkness, yet again.