I’m looking forward to saying goodbye to 2011. It was a hard year, with a lot of crazy medical issues for loved ones. That doesn’t mean that the year was all bad of course, but it is amazing to look back and see just how much has happened in just the span of a year.

From my sister in law having a brain tumor removed and all that goes with that, to my husband having a mystery problem we are still trying to figure out, and even having my own issue which almost took me to the hospital, then recently finding out that our sweet niece of 11 has cancer and will be undergoing chemo for the next ten months, it has been a year full of stress and worry. Even Baby had her fair share of medical events this year, including panceratitis and surgery on her patella. But like I said, this doesn’t mean there weren’t good things this year, but I do feel a bit exhausted from everything that has been happening.

Let’s move on to the “sweet stuff”! This year’s highlights:

*Attending the Altitude Summit at the Grand America hotel.*Meeting Seth Aaron and Mondo from Project Runway.*Celebrating 9 years of marriage with my favorite husband.*Visiting the dinosaur museum.*Welcoming a new nephew to the family.*Celebrating birthdays.*Going to the aquarium, petting sting rays and watching the penguins play.*Enjoying time with friends.*Spending a lot of time with family.*Building a train set with my mom.*Writing a novel in November for NaNoWriMo.*Adding fish and a snail to the “zoo”.*Cooking a lot of new recipes.*Celebrating the weddings of friends.*Seeing the ice breaks on the lake.*Going to the Dew Tour and watching skateboarding awesomeness.*Making mummy candle holders and handmade felt ornaments for Halloween.*Having fun with gadgets, cookie cutters, and other fun blog review items.*The holidays!

While a lot of the medical issues are still ongoing, I do hope that things will be a bit more settled this year. I am looking forward to working out consistently again, especially hoopdancing, biking, and hiking. The garden is high on my to do list, especially after the neglect of last year (oh the weeds that are waiting for me when spring arrives)! Seed catalogs are already arriving and making me dream of spring. I really can’t wait!

I’m still trying to decide what I want my theme for 2012 to be, but I think it’s safe to say that 2011′s theme “Create” happened, though in somewhat unexpected ways. A lot of memories were created, as were a few fun crafts, and if I really stretch to make it fit, lots of pounds were created too!

How was your 2011?

Did you have a good Christmas? We had a very nice Christmas, and are now enjoying a long Christmas break. I have to say, I believe our theme for the year was Geekmas! So many fun geeky toys found their way to my stocking, and my husband’s too. And our decorations had a bit of a geeky theme to them as well. Holiday highlights:

• Counting down the days until Christmas with our Star Wars Advent! Who knew that opening and putting together a little Lego item each day was going to be so much fun? The last two days were the best, a Christmas tree and Yoda as Santa.
• Baking Ninjabread Men and Portal 2 cookies. There is something about baking and decorating cookies that just feels right at Christmas.
• Decorating the house! We had a traditional tree, some favorite decorations, and our North Pole village. But then we also had a few leg lamps, and even an 8-Bit wreath, complete with blinking coins (the photo above).
• My mom and I made some super cute snowmen and reindeer to deliver to our favorite neighbors who aren’t actually our neighbors anymore. Fun to make, hopefully just as fun to eat!
• Opening stockings and gifts from loved ones. Playing with the gifts.
• Visiting Santa’s reindeer.
• Watching A Christmas Story in matching pajama bottoms while decorating our gingerbread house.
• And last but not least, three! Yes, three! Christmas dinners with family.

I think we are both pretty happy to have some days off this week to recover from all the festivities! Hopefully your Christmas was just as fun and filled with things you enjoyed too.