I swear these letters get harder and harder to write every year. It is such a challenge to remember what I did yesterday, let alone recap the entire year. But I know this is a good exercise to do–to take the time and look back, to reflect on our lives, and be thankful for everything in them. And this year, like all the others, has been chock full of exciting things.
I do remember one thing . . . our New Year’s Resolution last year was to try to have more fun. I know that seems like a crazy resolution, but Karlo and I really seem to struggle at having fun. We tend to get too bogged down in work and I knew that we needed to make some changes. The first thing I did was go out and buy us a Wii system. How can you not have fun playing with a Wii? I positively love it and I’m still playing with it a year later. It sometimes requires some arm twisting to get Karlo to play, but he usually caves. The Wii sure did make the long Winter go by faster.
When Spring rolled around I positively couldn’t wait to get back to taking pictures and was thrilled to grab a great deal on a photography seminar vacation. We had a ball driving down to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for this trip. We visited friends both on the way down, as well as on the way back home. I managed to get some great pictures and learned a few things to boot. It was a dream come true for me and even Karlo had a good time. Another score in the fun category.
We bridged the gap between Spring and Summer with a fantastic trip to Croatia and Montenegro. Seems like it’s always easy for Karlo and I to have fun on two wheels so this was an easy one for us given that we biked every day. We could not have asked for a better vacation than this. Well, maybe a bit less hills to climb. OK, who am I kidding? We loved the hills. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Fun fun.
I have to say, this Summer is going on record as our most fun and relaxing one. Seems every year up until this point we always had some ridiculous project (either a major home improvement project, a construction project, and we don’t even want to remember that book writing ordeal) going on. But this time . . . this time I can’t think of one major thing we took on. The only thing I committed to was opening my art gallery 4 times and each and every opening was an all-day socializing event. We had loads of fun at every opening visiting with all our friends. Maybe having fun is easier than I thought it would be.
My birthday this year was incredible and lasted 4 days. It started with a limo ride with friends down to the casino and ended with a two day motorcycle tour of the Litchfield Hills. This time I rode my own bike and I was very proud of myself. The only damper on this weekend was the severe shoulder and neck pain. To THINK I’m having all this fun and yet still stressed enough to be in pain. I still don’t get that, and I’m working on it trying to fix it. That will be part of next year’s New Year’s resolution . . .
The rest of the Summer was filled with more fun. We had a great visit with Jessica, took some day trips to the shore, bought a fun car, and even celebrated our anniversary in our favorite city.
Enter Fall–my favorite time of the year. We took a surprise weekend get-away to the Berkshires. What a pretty place at that time of the year and we really excelled at the relaxing and having fun thing during this weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed that trip because it was sandwiched between a whole lot of business travel. It was nice to get away and not work for a change. Of course, our vacation came soon after and where we managed to work there - a lot. It was one of those burn-a-zillion-calories-a-day kind of trips, the ones that I love the best and we did it in one of our favorite spots in the world, Acadia National Park, Maine. Our hearts still beat a little faster when in Maine and not because we are hiking or biking, because we truly love the place. It was hard not to fantasize the entire time about moving up there. Maybe one day if I could make peace with the cold it will happen. Until then I’ll be curled up next to Cooper by the wood stove.
Unfortunately this really nice year is ending with the usual chaotic stress. I’m working on improving this situation. I’m slowing making small changes to simply my life and I have to continue to move toward simplicity. Gee, I like that word, “simplicity.” I think I just found my theme for 2011 . . .
We pray that your holidays are filled with joy, happiness and most of all good health. Cheers and here's to the New Year.
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