Please accept my belated welcome to the new year, but the final days of 2017 left me feeling a little worse for wear. Lots of ups and downs.

Here’s an up:

I got another most welcome round of edits back on ORDER UP.

And here’s a down:

They arrived in my inbox just a few days before Christmas and needed a quick turnaround.

Another up:

My editor, lovely woman that she is, allowed a brief extension due to the holidays.

Back down again:

I came down with a bad head cold (thank you very much fellow commuters and office mates who think nothing of coming into work all phlegmy).

Up again:

Yeah! The oldest of my college boys decided at the last minute to come home for the holidays after all and brought his cat (meet Nala – isn’t she adorable?).

An back down again:

We had to cancel a planned road trip to NJ to visit my eldest so we could do the whole Christmas-in-Manhattan thing.

You get the picture.

Two weeks into the new year, however, I am happy to report that the bumps already seem fewer and farther between.

• Edits? Done.
• Head cold? Gone.
• College boys? Returning to campus this weekend (sans cat).
• Trip to NJ? Rescheduling soon.

Here’s to a smooth road ahead in 2018!