The Year in Review (or not)

I thought this would be a great topic for a final blog post of 2011 - a summary of the year's events... putting it all in perspective sort of thing.  But I'm having trouble sorting out individual 'events' that happened this year.  Here at the end of the year, looking back, it seems like it's all blended together.  Didn't we have a lot of natural disasters?  Far too many reports of military personnel injured or killed in foreign lands?  Political messes?  Budget messes?  Over-the-top reality TV?  It's really not been a good year.  Possibly better left 'un-reviewed.'  Or at least left to dear Dave Barry to do.  (His 'Year in Review' is always hilarious - do follow the link and read it.)

One wonders if 2012 could be better.  Seems unlikely.  We don't have an optimistic outlook for the housing market, the stock market, the job market, or the presidential election.  Oil is up, stocks are down, food prices are rising...  Good grief!

I guess we'll have to create our own optimism.  We'll have to work hard, laugh a lot, get together with people we care about, eat well, save as much as we can and wisely spend when we can't.  We'll have to take ourselves and our politics a little less seriously, and our health and our finances a little more seriously.  We'll have to find new places to go and new appreciation for the places we've already seen.  And if we cuddle cats, watch sunsets, eat chocolate, sit in front of the fire, hike on beautiful trails, read great authors, and wear comfortable clothes..., well, life will be good. 

Happy New Year!

Ready?

The shopping is done, the house is decorated, the wreath hung on the front door. The gifts are wrapped, the cookies baked, the menu set for Christmas dinner...

It's only the 20th!  I was in a hurry; afraid things wouldn't come together.  You know the feeling.  But somehow it all happened.  I got a little lucky and a little organized.  I had some help and some inspiration. And now...  I'm sort of done.  With some time to kill. I don't think this has ever happened before.  It's left me in a bit of a daze.

Did you know that the Hallmark channel (cable TV) has the most insipid, sappy, poorly written, badly directed Christmas-themed, made-for-TV, tear-jerker movies, all in a big collection, shown ad nauseum for the 12 days (give or take) of Christmas? I know this because I've been watching them all. 

"You're a bit crazed," Mark would tell me, if he wasn't too polite to say. 

Perhaps.  But tis the season.

Merry Christmas to all!