For auld lang syne

Happy New Year everyone. I rang in my new year by baking cream cheese snickerdoodles with the bug, after which we watched Hunchback of Notre Dame and gorged ourselves on cookies, popcorn and hot chocolate. While we had grand plans of setting off fireworks and screaming "Happy New Year" at midnight, we both passed out promptly at 8:30. Does it make me old that I went to bed in 2010 and woke in 2011 rather than doing the whole countdown-at-a-hipster-party thing? Probably, but I don't plan to lose any sleep over it. It was a fun New Year's Eve regardless.

Still, having missed the ball drop, I didn't get the chance to make my annual lists.  The ending of one year and the begining of another always seems to warrant the making of lists, yes?  So this year I changed up my tradition and made my lists today.

What I have learned from 2010:

• I will always, always morn the loss of my little girl that was never allowed to be born
• Moving cross-country with a toddler is stressful
• No matter what life throws at us, my family will not only persevere, but be better for it
• Any situation can be made better with a song
• No matter how bad you think you have it, it can always get worse so you might as well be grateful
• Complaining makes  a bad situation SO much worse
• I love the South
• You are only old when you stop learning
• Freedom of speech is a tricky subject and one not many people truly understand
• People are generally good. When faced with crisis, they will rally to help in any way they can
• Strategy is sometimes superfluous.  Victory favors the unprepared.
• Traveling cross-country with just my daughter as a companion isn't as scary as I thought.  In fact, she is rather an awesome travelling companion
• Everyone should travel
• I view others by a different standard than I view myself
• Happiness is not measured in what you have in life, but who you get to share life with
• I've got the greatest daughter in the universe (this isn't news to me, but it really hit home to me with the difficulties and stress of the past year.  I've got a great kid.)

My resolutions for 2011:

• Jump in rain puddles more often
• Kiss my love in the rain
• Dance with my daughter at every opportunity
• Stop eating fast food!
• Spend less time on the computer
• Take more walks with the bug and don't obsess when she brings home 100 "pretty things" for her collection
• Start playing the violin again
• Have more date nights with my love
• Lose the extra junk in my trunk
• Finish my list of 237 must-read books for the year...and then whatever books I want after that
• Have more patience
• Be less judgmental
• Get rid of half of what we accumulated in 2010
• Travel

That's it for now.  I have hope of completing all of my resolutions this year.  2010 definitely had its ups and its downs.  But there were significantly more ups.  I feel excited for this coming year.  It only gets better from here.

Right now I'm listening to this while watching the rain with the bug. The only thing that could make this moment better is if Ernie were here with us. Life is good and this is going to be a great year. Happy and beautiful wishes to all of you.

Cheers!