For a year during which I passed two springs, I really have insisted on going to places to test myself against the extreme cold.

Armed with travel talismans and a passport for which we had to buy a plane ticket for (yes, getting your passport mailed to you same day is like buying a seat for it on an airplane), I watched Orion's Belt appear to my right at 5:30pm as we traveled northward. The sky is deep purple and the Adirondacks are piled softly with snow.

My passport, from which I had to tear out two visas to make room for more stamps after Chilean customs officers scolded me for not having room, sits warmly in my right pocket. Every "meal" we have eaten today has involved at least one food covered in chocolate. The trees, our old friends, line the sides of the icy roads and greet us with branches wide open.

So, wide openly we go.

(a happy new year awaits)