First some photo documentation of our Christmas Eve festivities here at the homestead with two of our own and their partners enjoying the gift opening. Here the prodigal son is demonstrating the use of the just received massager on his bunged up knee “oh man this is just what I need” to his sofa mates.

Am not sure if it’s the ending of one year and beginning of the next or just having a few days off and the house to myself to be able to look around at what needs doing but I’ve been organizing this week. This has meant a complete overhaul of scrapbooking supplies – and daydreams of pages to be created, reorganizing of card making supplies and the stashing of Christmas wrapping supplies. It has also brought the early planning for our travels which are only 30 days or four weekends away…. but who’s counting?

This week brought a visit at a friend’s house of another childhood friend down for a holiday visit from Dartmouth. Nice to have tea and warm sticky buns in great company and just think I’d have missed out if I were at work that afternoon. There’s been lots of time for dog walks and general puttering which is something I really miss with that Monday to Friday routine.

I spent one whole evening online tying up details for banking, photos, and email. Now if I just had high speed internet…but you don’t want to hear the whining about that!

Looking back over the past year it’s been overall a decent 365 days. We’ve sure seen years that I’ve been glad to have New Years Eve arrive to celebrate the end of it! On the positive side of the list on the home front we:
Sold our old house
Got flower beds built
Replanted flowerbeds and shrubs
Built a deck
Celebrated another offspring high school graduation / moving to university / doing well
Survived empty nest syndrome in fine style

Towards retirement, I:
Did research for cruise speaking by taking one in April
Purchased a laptop, did a PowerPoint of lobstering, presented /was filmed at the library
Managed to fit in a number of travel health consultations at work

Since this is the time for making resolutions I’ve been pondering a few and have decided that in 2008 I shall…. write at least two or three times per week. I’m not looking to pen the next great Canadian novel (like a quilt that’s too big a project), win writing contests (good thing with my track record this past year) or even freelance my work really (at least not until retirement as it takes more time and energy than I have). We all write for different reasons and I have decided that I want to record my thoughts for my family and since this could take some time I’d better get started. So I’ve decided to approach my life story (bit pretentious to call it an autobiography if you’re not a world famous persona) one yarn at a time and then organize them into a collection which is how I’ve chosen to get the pages done for the family scrapbook as it would be an overwhelming job to approach it as the complete project from beginning to end.

As the self-imposed deadline of New Years Day approaches for the tree coming down the felines are surely going to miss that bit of outdoors inside here. They have slept under it daily, removed the ornaments and lights, and drank from the water holder but as of this writing haven’t climbed it yet.