Happy New Year from our mountain-cabin to you my bestie!!

Tomorrow we start a NEW YEAR! I’m always so excited even though we could celebrate a new beginning every single morning!

When I see fancy clothes in the stores and online titled New Years outfits I always smile. My outfit is not fancy. It’s thermo underwear, ski socks and my snowboard jacket and pants. Our dinner is fancy though and sooo good, prepared on the fire stove. The house has hopefully 1000 of stars ; ) in the night sky and our snowbar will provide mulled wine for speaking a toast to our brand new year 2024!

I like those events which happen every year. Like Christmas. Same, same but different. The kids get bigger, we get older. The fun is the same and the appreciation for our time together just grows every year. My daddy is 83 and still walking up here, step by step, very slow and steady.

His pace is so comfortable I love to walk with him. He’ll have NO backpack (or a tiny one if he insists) this year as his ancient military backpack was even empty weighing a TON. We carry veggies and all the fresh food up. Bread is ordered at the pension which is open and always fully booked on New Years. We hope for the fountain not to be frozen and for the first 2 hours we just have to feed the fire nonstop in the oven and wait until the temperature in the living room rises from minus degrees (around 30 °F) to cozy warmth (approx. 75°F). 

It really depends on the weather, the amount of snow, the avalanche situation and of course on our mood if we go for a ski-tour, invent sledding-contests, build an igloo or simply take care of all the tasks in the house like cooking, washing dishes, getting water at the fountain, wood chopping and keeping the fire going. It’s so nice that this family of four is with us every year for such a long time. They know every task, where every pot and pan needs to be put…

Daddy Markus is a childhood-bestie of godfather Gian in Tokyo… We met at a birthday party for Gian when I was about 19… and he joined the New-Year-team I think in 1997… his girlfriends changed over the years ; ) until his now wife became a crew member. Ken is their younger son's godfather and our “big ones” are 2 months apart. Life is so, so good when you have good friends. And I don’t say that to brag. If you have besties over decades too, you know. And if you are longing for friends you haven’t met yet, I tell you: It IS POSSIBLE and YOU WILL find them! Would you like to get my insights and “how to’s” for finding new best friends? Let me know! 

For a few years now we have celebrated at the snowbar at 9pm or so. A lot of the time I was alone awake at 12pm and did a little ceremony for myself. I wrote down what I wanted to let go and not take into the next year and then BURNED the paper. This feels soooo good. If you want to join me, I’m super happy to hear your fire-let-go-stories (don’t burn down things, okay!?). Last year Mika and Ken stayed up and we had a family sparkle stick - wishing our wishes for the new year… Rituals can change. Traditions can be built. We can choose and decide every New Year's eve what’s best for ourselves. If it’s going to bed at 9pm with a happy heart, DO it! One thing I’ll do this year probably when I get home as I don’t have enough reception up there: Writing a letter to my future self for the 31st of December 2024. Making promises, deciding on new habits, sharing thoughts, talking about fears and sorrows… envisioning the end of 2024 Ronja and becoming her over the year. Will you do this too? You can write an actual letter and hide it somewhere you remember ; ) or you can do it digitally on futureme.org.

I’m sending you the biggest hug (if you like hugs) or the bestest of thoughts for looking back on 2023 and outwards into 2024!

Take good care of yourself! 

Happy happy new year,

PS: From now on I’ll do a story of Ronja’s scrapbook every other Sunday. I just did the outline and I’m sooo looking forward to sharing these stories with you! If you have requests or questions, let me know!

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This is a story from my weekly Joy-Letter that goes out every Sunday. Do you want to be the first to hear my personal scrapbook stories? Then sign up below.

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