Late to the party, but many congrats, Kate! That's a great proposal story.

Yay for Proposal Toast! Congratulations to you both, Kate!

So I got home this afternoon to find a package waiting for me, containing:

• An Alaska clock.
• A Juneau, Alaska calendar
• A couple of Alaska picture books
• Some German chocolates.

So, obviously, my Secret Santa is Fiona libkitty! Thank you, libkitty!!

Paging Miracle Man: Can you please make sure you have a camera handy to take a pic of Aims opening her Sooper Sekrit Santa gift? Should be there next week. Thanks!

I was hoping that they would arrive before New Year's at least! Yeah!!

I know that the chocolates aren't Belgian, but they're my favoritest, so they should be everyone's, right? Anyway, I hope that you enjoy them, and that all the Alaska stuff doesn't make you feel transported here until the middle of some stifling hot day in the summer, when you can feel cooled by looking at the outhouse on the glacier, or calving ice.

thanks for the birthday wishes and belated congradulations to Kate!

Happy belated birthday, quester!

Hi everyone, 2010 is an hour old here, so here's my farewell to 2009. This was a big, big year for me. So much has changed in 2009. I think most of you know the most unbelievably awesome change: [link] Ryan's now eight months old, and is as sweet and wonderful as ever. [link] I tell Wallybee often, it feels like we won the baby lottery. He's healthy, happy, friendly, good-natured, incredibly cute and we are totally besotted with him.

But he's not the only major adjustment. In mid-April, two weeks before Ryan was born, I was laid off from the company I'd worked with for 14 years. It wasn't a surprise, and I'd been unhappy there for some time (courtesy of the worst boss I've had in my entire career). I wasn't sure how I'd react if the axe fell; in the event, it was more a relief than anything else. (My old company has done right by the staff they laid off, IMO; the payout was generous and included the services of an outplacement agency.) It's given me one marvellous blessing; I've been here to watch Ryan grow and develop. I need to find at least part-time work in 2010, but Australia wasn't as hard hit by the GFC as most of the developed world, so I'm optimistic.

Not that I've been lounging around since then. I came into the investment field by an oblique path, which left certain gaps in my experience; while I had the time, I decided to enrol in a Master of Finance degree at the University of Melbourne. (I've informed my brother that when I graduate, I'm going to take a Sharpie to my degree, cross out "Master" and write in "Maestro".) I got my results for my first semester a week or so ago - of the three units in which I enrolled, I topped the class in each of them. I'm feeling quite proud of that, one of them especially. And to tie it in with the previous paragraph, my lecturer in one of the units is recommending me to do some consulting work for a client of his. I don't know yet what's involved, but if I could get some part-time work to start the next year, that would be just fine with me. I also wound up befriending three Chinese students in another of my classes (we were grouped together for two assignments), and wound up more or less tutoring them. Good for the ego, if nothing else.

The other great household blessing we've had is that Wallybee's parents got a visa to come over from China and stay with us for a year, to help with Ryan's first year. They have been a wonderful help, and are completely taken with their little grandson. We're going to see about them coming over permanently, but that'll take some time. (They're eligible, since Wallybee is their only child.) They are truly remarkable people; I hold the same respect for them as I do my own parents. Having them here has been such a boon for Wallybee especially. Certainly I owe my uni results to their support.

Naturally, with all this happening in one year, we couldn't have our address stay the same. We had a new house built for us in one of the outer suburbs, and moved in February. The move itself was nightmarish, but came together in the end. We now have a house large enough to accommodate all of us. It's a good street, the people here are good neighbours. We're within walking distance of everything from the railway station to the main shopping strip to the local fitness centre and swimming pool. Our garden still looks like a construction site, thanks to the lack of income, but we have a playpen in the living room and a satellite dish in the back yard picking up 35 channels from China. So, yeah, it feels like home.

We needed to get somethwere in walking distance to the train, because Wallybee doesn't drive. Or didn't; she's been learning, which has seen us hit the road for some practice most nights lately. It's actually been quality time for us. She's coming along very well too - she'll be ready to pass her test in a month or two. (She occasionally picks up interpreting gigs for other people taking (continued...)

( continues...) their driving test, so she knows better than most what to expect.)

I haven't mentioned much about Wallybee directly here, because nothing has really changed here, only deepened. I'm very lucky to have found her (well, technically, she found me).

Oh, and I also turned 40 somewhere in the middle of it all too.

Family updates: my older brother now has a job managing a liquor store attached to a supermarket. The older of my younger brothers is now engaged to a woman from Kenya. My youngest brother moved house and is sharing with a couple of friends, but for the most part it was a quiet year for him. My sister's youngest had an aneurysm last year, at just eight months old - he was very fortunate to survive. My sister and her husband have spent a very difficult year looking after his recovery. My dad is still Judgey McJudgeypants.

In summary, this has been a year of some major changes. Good changes, for the most part. It's certainly a year we won't soon forget. I'm rather looking forward to seeing what 2010 brings next.

I just read over my LJ, and 2009 maybe wasn't as bad as I thought, but I'm still ready to say good-bye to it.

There were good things -- I went to Vegas, and Seattle, all thanks to wonderful friends here whom I got to spend F2F time with. I scored a freelance gig that paid the bills pretty well. We eked every pleasure out of the summer with the kids. Sara learned to ride her bike and to read, and Ben got taller than me and started junior high, which he loves. Jake finally passed his GED and has started thinking about what he's doing next.

But we were still here, where none of us want to be. So I decided to go back to school, figuring it would at least take us somewhere else, and maybe then the rest would fall into place. No idea if that was where the tide turned, but the next thing I knew, S. was interviewing for a job in Maryland, and then I sold the young adult book (plus another to come).

So 2010 is going to be one big change in almost every way, but it's going to be good stuff -- I'll be in school wherever will accept me, possibly in MD if this job for S. does come through, and I'll be writing, which is pretty much a dream come true. And the kids will be in better schools and in a home without a gloomy old man (sorry, FiL, but it's completely true).

My biggest gift is feeling hopeful again.