Farewell 2010

In my youth, each New Years Eve at midnight I would call my Mom and Dad, regardless of where I was on the planet to share with them the excitement of welcoming a new year. Every year I got the same sleepy response as I woke them from REM sleep asking incredulously, "You seriously did not stay awake to watch the clock click past midnight?"

Its 8 pm on this New Years Eve, and I am propped up in bed having survived the Yogi Bear movie with the kids and a pizza dinner in anticipation of Grace's birthday tomorrow. I may be asleep before finishing this post. But not before giving tribute to another great year with a whole lot of really wonderful people.

This is the year Lil and Grace became friends. Not that there is never any competition for attention, but the war is over and they now plot against us. They are beautiful bright girls and we are so lucky to be called their parents. We are family.

This is the year we not only survived Disney but decided that we really liked it. At a time when most folks our age are driving their motor homes down to the quiet coast of Florida, we bought a family (and golf) friendly time-share in kid centred Orlando so we can do it all over again every year. Go figure.

This is the year I stopped my belly aching. Gluten free living has given me a new lease on life and restored my energy...not enough to keep me up until midnight tonight...but certainly I do pretty well keeping up with junior partner and small but mighty one.

This is the year that Grace potty trained and learned to speak English. She has had a few linguistic mishaps with the Halloween Bitch and Pissmass Tree but is now quite capable of getting her point across and will soon have the wherewithall to tattle on her big sister. We have come to accept that Grace is and probably always will be tiny....her height has now fallen off the bottom of the growth chart...and she has the voice of Alvin the Chipmunk...but she has a huge personality with loads of confidence and is as cute as can be. And once we get those eyes fixed, she'll stop running into door frames.

This is the year that Lily learned to ride a bike without training wheels and also lost her two front teeth (unrelated milestones). For a year Lil has lamented that her friends lost and grew new teeth, gleaned cash rewards from the Tooth Fairy all while she was still stuck with her original set. To our alarm her new teeth grew in before her baby teeth fell out, but thankfully our calm dentist intervened in our attempts at dentistry (mostly involving string and doorknobs) and nature took care of the rest. She got a big girl bike for Xmas so I am sure that the remainder of her baby teeth will fall out as soon as the bike trail is clear of snow.

This is the year that we braved a 10 hour drive to Wisconsin in the Mom Van and lived to tell the tale. We had just an excellent week with Annie and Scott, their kids and Gus and Gordon the cat and the kids were angels all the way there and back thanks to the DVD player. I must say for all of those individuals who pine after a luxury car...if it doesn't have automatic sliding doors, a DVD player that pops out of the ceiling, and room in the back for a decent haul of lumber from Rona...it ain't worth having. I'm hooked on the Mom van and I know that this is a sad comment on my psyche.

This is the year that we took on the mother of all renovations. We may be living under a tarp with water leaking through the ceiling currently, but this is really going to make the house what we and the kids need. This year after looking at many options and other homes we realized that our hearts are here and our search for perfection is over. Of course, that doesn't mean I can't reno the kitchen at a later date.

This is the year we made a whole lot of really great babies. We've been seeing double quite a lot, and for people who struggle to have a family, the 2-for-1 deal always seems pretty sweet. We feel so lucky to do what we do together, and we work with a great staff to make it all happen. So have a few New Years drinks and make yourself a baby...but don't drink and drive.

So farewell to 2010, 2011 has a lot to live up to. Last night during the dinner time food fight Tony asked "Remember how quiet the house was when it was just you and me?" When I nodded longingly he said "This is good, isn't it?"
"The best" I agreed
Here's hoping for another year of the best.