The great thing about a birthday on January 6th, is while everyone pulls it together come January 1st, I have my own slow burn of a celebration the whole week after New Year’s Day.  Why not?  I think.  I’ve already been given combination birthday/Christmas gifts and everyone is so wiped out from a month’s worth of festivities they can’t really celebrate with me wholeheartedly, so my week looks like this: late night toffee eating, another cheeseburger, half attempted work outs, wine on a Wednesday evening, fringes of disorganization, ruminating on potential resolutions, late night Downton reruns.  I keep the feel of the whole holiday season going along for just 6 more days…secretly.

Season 3 Premiere of Downton in the States was my birthday present—photo credit:The Telegraph

So now after I spent last week embroiled in the schedules, paperwork, and errands of real life (that do provide their own form of satisfaction), I want to share a post from a gorgeous blog I discovered, My French Heaven.  Of course it’s French, but the message is universal.

Toscanini’s Oranges

On Arturo Toscanini’s eightieth birthday, someone asked his son, Walter, what his father ranked as his most important achievement. The son replied: “For him there can be no such thing. Whatever he happens to be doing at the moment is the biggest thing in his life – whether it is conducting a symphony or peeling an orange.” Ardis Whitman

Toscanini’s Oranges – Les oranges de Toscanini | My French Heaven.

Please click the link above to visit this full post on My French Heaven.  Then give yourself a treat and peek around the whole site.

And may you find some wonder in all of your tedious moments this year.