With each passing year, I find more meaning in ringing in the new year and having the opportunity to start afresh, to take a look back and give thanks but to also look ahead with renewed anticipation.

And I find myself reflecting even more about what I want to focus on this particular year being in a new country, in a new year.

I spent my New Years Eve with family here. I was especially eager to be reunited with my grandmother and greeted her with a big bear hug. We reminisced on the past, my relatives telling me how much I have changed and how they didn't imagine Y & I would find ourselves living here in Korea! We exchanged our hopes and wishes. We enjoyed dinner together intermingled with glasses of red wine and topped it all off with a delicious cheesecake to celebrate my grandmother's birthday.

On New Year's Day, we invited my relatives to our place. We had 떡국 (dduk gook - a Korean dish traditionally eaten on New Years), played 윷놀이, made california rolls for dinner and then went to watch a movie altogether (one that I bawled my eyes out in... it's a good thing we took a picture before the movie).

I cherish these moments. The laughter, the tears, the conversations, the silence. And look forward to many more moments like this. And with that, I share with you my resolutions for 2015.