First things first, though I am shamefully late on this: Suzi, I'm glad you liked the ornaments! My plan was to put together another package of Nashville-style treats to send to you, but that hasn't happened yet -- I'm hoping to send something out by the end of the month. I got fixated on finding you some maple fudge, but no luck in Nashville. May I ask your thoughts on marshmallows? Or... bourbon?
And I'll do a little year-in-review while I'm here. The main things haven't changed much: still in Nashville, same house, same job, same husband & kids. This past year definitely saw an uptick in my political engagement, though I let it fall off somewhat in the later part of the year; but I marched in January, made more phone calls to my senators than in all previous years combined, and donated to a bunch of candidates and political groups.
Closer to home: Rose started kindergarten at my school this year (and lost her first tooth on the very first day -- I expect her to turn up with a driver's license any day now), and it's been really great for both of us to be at the same school, even if I don't typically see her during the day. I've been able to come to several of her class events that wouldn't have been possible if I weren't in the same building, and I like that we're part of the same community.
Rose also developed a love of bugs this past year, spurred on by a serendipitous book discovery at a used bookstore this summer, so I now know way more about "Micromonsters" than I ever expected to know. We still haven't really gone through a dinosaur phase, which I admit I've been eager to reach -- that was a big love of mine as a kid. Maybe this will be the year! She also continues to be a big reader and has made big strides in reading independently. We've read a bunch of Roald Dahl books together and are currently listening to the Laura Ingalls Wilder books during our school commute, and I really enjoy getting to share and discuss those stories with her. Oh, and she wants to be a doctor, a nurse, or a vet when she grows up.
Jane, on the other hand, will either be an architect, a mountain climber, or a stand-up comedian -- remains to be seen. She's a sweet, adorable goofball who will still only eat about half a dozen things, and seems to live mainly on blueberry bagels and yogurt. She loves swings and will happily let you (read: insist that you) push her for an hour or more. At 2.5 years old, she can now climb out of her crib (and climb back in, fortunately, since we don't have another bed to put her in yet) and is about to start potty-training.
I've had a good year at work, especially in terms of creating/refining interesting projects with my teachers. I feel like I've learned a lot this year about curriculum design & project planning. I went to a school librarian conference in November that was full of sessions with great ideas that I'd love to try. If we end up doing even one out of every five I wrote down, that would be pretty great, but it was good to feel energized and excited about the possibilities for my work.
Two other changes this year: We added a new room onto our house, so that we can now send the kids into another room to play while the grownups have a little space to sit and read or talk. I took a while to be convinced that we should do this, but have ended up being very happy that we did. And my friend who owns a local bookstore moved to a location that's about a half mile from our house, and asked me if I wanted to start doing storytimes there on Saturday mornings. So that's been going on for a few months now, and it's been a ton of fun.
...This has gotten way longer than I intended, so perhaps I'll just hit "Post" now before I backtrack and edit out like half of what I just wrote!