Is the New Year nearly here? The signs are certainly all around us. The days have gotten shorter and colder, the trees have dropped (most of) their leaves, the birds that pass through my back yard are only stopping briefly on their way to warmer climates, and of course the stores are all playing holiday music. Despite all of the signs around me, I can hardly believe how close we are to the Winter Solstice, and how far away camp seems. But as the song goes “and the seasons they go round and round…”

As some of you may, winter isn’t my favorite season. Don’t get me wrong, over the years I’ve learned to appreciate winter – really. There’s a lot about this season that I truly enjoy. But summer is really my season! I love the warm sun, the long days and the feeling of joy that I get from being at camp. So for me, the approach of the Winter Solstice has one very special meaning – I’m halfway to summer! And the countdown to camp approaches.

I spent a little time today looking at the registration lists for the summer of 2012. In additional to all of the technology that we use to register campers, we also have great big hand written lists for each session (we actually call it “The Big List”). The Big List is divided for girls on one side and boys on the other. In August, when she created the lists for 2012, our registrar Melissa carefully wrote the numbers 1 – 70 on each side. Over the course of the last three months she has been just as careful about writing in the name of each camper as he or she registered. It’s fun for each of us to look at the lists from time to time as it begins to fill up, and to see the names of campers that we’ve know for years and years, and those that we’ll get to know this coming summer. We get excited to see that our table daughter will be back, or that the star of the musical may be gracing the stage once again. I guess that planning and anticipation is one of the things about winter that I’ve come to appreciate.

So if you feel far away from camp as the days get shorter, remember that the Winter Solstice is coming, and with it the days between winter and summer will get shorter too. And if you haven’t done so already, get your application in so that Melissa can add your name to the list! We’ll be happy to see it and to know that pretty soon we’ll all be enjoy the long days of summer back on Hart Road.