I don't know what it is about this time of year, but, like clockwork, I get the urge to purge. I have already cleaned out three overloaded closets, part of the basement, and now I have moved on to my office. One of my Christmas presents from Jim was a beautiful black filing cabinet. Part of the closet cleaning was moving out the various small filing cabinets I had tucked here and there (FOUR in all!). After four days of sifting through everything, I am down to just two filing cabinets. One will head to the basement with the stuff you have to keep, but rarely access. The other is now neatly organized and ready for action. It's a great way to start a new decade.

We always host Christmas dinner, and it's just about the only time each year when my parents get to catch up with Jim's parents. My favorite time is when everyone is sitting around after dinner, chatting and picking at the desserts and cookies. I always take a long look around, and try to just soak in the contentment I feel at having everyone together, safe, healthy and happy.

The warm weather on Sunday was the perfect opportunity to squeeze in an end-of-season raindate shoot. How often do you get near 50 weather in December?

We took a drive to one of our favorite hiking spots in Upper Black Eddy. Ringing Rocks is a little park that has a bed of boulders that ring when hit with a hammer or stone. They seem to cascade down a hill, yet they are more concentrated near the top than at the bottom. Once you make it through the boulder field, there is a short hike to the highest waterfall in Bucks County. It's a beautiful drive up River Road. On the way back we detoured into Stockton, NJ to have lunch at Cravings.