Photo in this post by Coco of COCOCOZY

Let’s see…it is December 31st. The end of 2012. Am in Colorado…for a snowy long holiday in Beaver Creek with TE. Everyone is out skiing.  I’m in the hotel room. Writing this post.  We’re going to dinner tonight with best of friend FF and her husband CCF…and we’ll have dessert with my godson CGF…I can’t wait.

I took the picture above while driving through Los Angeles early one morning last week. It was a cold morning; it had rained overnight and the gorgeous clear skies and sunrise stopped me in my tracks. I took a moment. A pause. A moment to reflect. The sunrise symbolized hope and opportunity to me. Another chance to start over. It made me think of the New Year.

Every year when I write this end of the year post, I get a little teary. I think about all of the things that have happened in the past year and I wonder about what is to come in the year ahead. This year is no different.

The last few weeks of 2012 have been a bit challenging. A bit of a test. A test that I passed but by no means with flying colors. I made it through but not too gracefully.  Like I’m sure many of us have, in 2012, I have been faced with some situations that took me be surprise.  I managed to problem solve my way out of each of the situations…that made me feel good.  The question is though, did I handle the stressful situations with elegance and grace?

For 2011, my goal was “To be brave”. In 2012 my New Year’s resolution was “To inspire”.  Let’s see…now there is 2013.

In 2013, I think my resolution will be to “Handle it with Grace”.  In trying times, in good times, in emotional times, in happy times…I want to try my best to handle it all with grace.  What I mean by that is to make sure I always strive to stay composed, kind, considerate and as reasonable as possible.

This year is going to be a big year for me and COCOCOZY.  This year we launch several exciting partnerships and I am still doing the juggling act of my fantastic day job and COCOCOZY by night.  I hope and wish and pray and I’ll strive to handle the good, the bad and the not so pretty with as much grace as possible….while always remembering to have a good dose of a sense of humor along the way.

The day before Christmas, I ran down to the flower mart to get flowers for a table centerpiece.  There was a lady outside the flower mart. She asked me for money on my way in. She clearly was in need.  I kept walking. I came out of the flower mart, headed to my car.  I immediately noticed I had a parking ticket on the windshield.  As I was about to reach for the parking ticket, I looked up and saw the lady crossing the street.  There I stood with all of my flowers, heading home to make a lovely dinner for family and friends and I thought…why did I walk past this woman earlier?  So I reached into my purse, where I only had a $10 bill and I gave it to her.  The lady said thank you and proceeded to tell me she was off drugs and she would use the money to buy food.  I hopped into my car and sped off.  I felt good. I hoped the lady felt good too. As I raced off,  the parking ticket on my windshield that I was reaching for earlier but didn’t ever get, flew off and sailed through the air behind my car. It was gone.  I’m sure though the city will track me down for my parking transgression!  I smiled though and chuckled a bit.  I thought to myself that this situation is similar to so many situations every day.  A little good and a little something that makes life a bit more of a challenge.  Expect the challenges.  Handle them with grace.

I look forward to spending another year with you talking about life, design, decor and so much more.  I also look forward to taking on the challenges in life with lots of resolve and lots of grace.

Happy New Year to my dear mother, amazing sister (sis DS), aunts, uncles, cousins, friends (including best of friend AM) and all of the wonderful people in my life (TE etc)…including you dear readers!

Thank you all for sharing this past year with me…and I look forward to exploring another with you in 2013.

Happy New Year!

xo
Coco