Highlights of 2008

Highlights of 2008

Parasailing in Mexico
Becoming a member of The Outtakes
Watching my dad enjoy retirement
Attending the NKOTB concert (a childhood dream come true!)
Getting my nose pierced
Scoring a fantastic date from an arm wrestling match
Having my brother return safely from Iraq
Starting up a successful family support program at work
Watching Obama make history
Bonding with my mom over rum and cigars on Thanksgiving

Overall, it was a great year. Although I’m sorry to see it come to an end, my arms are wide open for 2009. Cheers!

Checklist for the upcoming year:

Ski/camp/hike more
Try snowboarding
Look through old family pictures with my mom
Fish with my dad
Travel (Possibly China this year)
Attain my clinical social work license
Visit my extended family in Oregon
Go whitewater rafting on the boundary waters
Take banjo lessons
Learn longform improv
Try to play hard in every aspect of my life

Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.
~Henry Ward Beecher

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
~T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Christmas

When I was growing up my dad would take my brothers on a week long hunting trip every year. While they were away hunting, my mom and I made our own memories. I loved spending time with my mom. She would call my school and tell them I was sick. This was a secret tradition we kept for many years. While "sick" my mom and I would shop for gifts and decorate the house for Christmas. It took several trips to bring down all of the Christmas decorations from the attic. I can still remember the smell of the attic in the house I grew up in. Such a sweet smell. We lived in an old stucco house on a bluff. If you ask me it was perfect for Christmas. High ceilings for a big tree. A fireplace for the stockings my grandma in Oregon made. Actually, she misspelled my name for years. My stocking said Emilie. She also made us a nativity scene. It always took us the longest to arrange the scene just right on the mantle. From my mom's childhood we had bubble lights and an old white ceramic Christmas tree full of holes for tiny colored pegs. It was my job to insert the pegs. Over the years we lost some of the original pegs and half of them were replaced by pegs from my Light-Bright. I remember turning it around and around to make sure the colors were evenly spread out. In my eyes the house was gorgeous. When we were done decorating we would turn off all the lights except for the Christmas lights and sit and talk into the night. If I ever have kids, I hope to pass along the tradition of calling them in sick once a year for the sake of Christmas.