So here we are on the last day of 2009. While just like a birthday, the new year is nothing more than a different page on the calendar. But is it? Isn’t it more? To me, just like a new school year, it signals a fresh start. A clean slate. A promise of something. Anything. Everything. And nothing. You can shed the mistakes of 2009. You can set goals for the new year. Or not. An opportunity for a new beginning. A refreshed outlook. A reflective look back on the past. A chance for magic. Or to believe in it.
Looking back on our own 2009, it’s been a wild ride. Never in my wildest dreams did I think The Husband and I would split up. We started the year with a vacation, and ended it apart. I didn’t foresee selling our house. Or moving back to our old one. Such are the twists and turns of life. This year saw Nick finish first grade and enter second. It saw a year for him filled with Boy Scouts, summer camp, soccer and karate. A year with 102 scores on tests and four missing teeth, two of which he even pulled out himself. Blech. There are days when I am literally amazed by his maturity, particularly as he took on a slightly different role in the house with The Husband gone, but then there are days that I’m instantly reminded that he’s still just seven. My little man. This year brought us a fun little personality in Madeline. Never a day goes by that Nick or I don’t crack up at something she says or does. A little pistol that now shushes us if we are telling her something she doesn’t like. An almost two year old that, although she wants zero help in using a fork or spoon, still ends up wearing a lot of it. So much food is on her face that I can’t even Photoshop it out. Unfortunately spilling food is a trait amongst the women in our family … I swear not a family meal goes by without me, my mom or my sister dropping some sort of food on our clothes. Madeline is in good company. My mom took one for the team during Christmas Day dinner.
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