The Last of the Last

I love this photo. But mostly, I love the moment behind this photo.

This is the last sunset of the last year of the decade. The end of the aughties. (Side note, I never head of the “aughties” until I read the term on the 31st.)

While trying to decide how to cutely layer clothes under the dress I wanted to wear to our New Years Eve festivities, I glanced out the window at the pinks & oranges bathing across our bitterly cold, snowy yard. Will noticed the colors too and ran into the office to grab the camera and announced he was grabbing a photo of the sunset.

I called out after him that he should take out the recycling while he was going out. We had accumulated quite a pile of cardboard from Christmas packages and it had been (and still was) too cold to venture out for a singular task. But I’m a taskmaster for efficiency and a trip out to the backyard should accomplish multiple things. Will gave me a bit of a “I knew you’d say that” laugh and trundled outside.

Will pulled out the ladder to get a better shot and placed it right outside our bedroom window. I watched as he climbed higher and higher until his boots were eye level. I thought about all of the warnings posted on the ladder to not go up to the very top step, but figured that I could keep him safe by sheer will power.

With the moment captured on film, the recycling taken out, the dress draped over jeans, and we were ready for nightfall. And for 2011.