Hey y'all. I got so behind on reading, then life and crap took over so I haven't been here in a while.

I have received my Secret Santa. I now have a beautiful, fancy paper snowflake ornament, a cool free-trade bracelet, and a box of chocolate truffles, NOM!. Thank you, amyth!

I need to get mine out in the mail to my giftee. Sorry I'm such a slacker this year. I haven't sent out Holiday/New Year's cards - maybe I'll try for a nice Happy January card??

I'll post my goodbye and good riddance later. I miss my b.org family.

Yay, Suzi, glad you got it!

I'm going to post my goodbye and good riddance later, too. Turns out, 2018 is hanging on until the last minute and refuses to be summed up yet.

I got more secret Santa goodness!

A TARDIS stocking with sound effects! A beautiful purple 3D printed yarn bowl!! A bath bomb , chocolate and a really cool music box.

Thank you !

Also to my secret santee I am going to finish up Wednesday after work and get it mailed Thursday.

Getting in an affectionate greeting before the clock ticks over for me here. No summation, moving on. I've wished us all a better year many times, and I'm not doing that this year.

May we help make 2019 a kinder year, with sternness where merited, for the world, for all of us, for each of you. I love you all.

I got a pin that looks like a book with "People to Kill" as the title.ETA: I can be like Jill Wine-Banks, only more lethal than legal. Also, yummy chocolate orange. My Santa has done a nice job!

2019 is the Year of the Killjoys, so I say we make some noise.

By which, riffing off of Bev's theme, we stand up, be counted, practice radical kindness, and take no shit.

I am grateful for this community every day, because you guys are the ones who helped make my current pretty-darn-good life possible.

Hi, Juliana! How is your threenager treating you?

The good: The wedding and joining of families. It was a highlight of my year, and my life as well. Just joyful through the planning and event itself.

The bad: Loss of loved ones and watching others decline. My 3 siblings all have serious health issues and the realization that I will lose them before long weighs on me. My younger brother's MS progresses and his memory is bad enough now that his ex-wife/caretaker doesn't let him drive anymore. We worry that he will get lost, or his motor control will fail at a bad moment, or both. My sister had him over to watch a recorded program and realized he forgot how to use the remote, and he used to work for the cable company. He is 63. One sister has advanced kidney failure from her decades of prescribed pharmaceuticals. Have to give her credit for really working hard to do everything she can to keep it from progressing, and her attitude is excellent. My other sister has a variety of health issues, but she is also working hard on resolving them. They are all at a distance so that makes it harder to be supportive.

The meh: Every year for the last X years I have looked ahead and thought that this would be the year I accomplish A, B, C, and maybe even D. I look at 2019 that way again and I am trying to be optimistic that this will be the year. I guess we shall see.

This home of mine remains my safe happy place. I love and appreciate all of you so very much.

Hugs, Laura.

sj, she expresses her opinions very decidedly for one so young. She's been sick since just after Christmas, so it's been extra-emotional around here. How is yours?

My year in review:

We're still in Nashville, and growing more weary of the city. It's our 10th year here, and that feels like a good long time to have been in a place where we never particularly intended to set down roots. The heat bothers me more each year, the traffic is only getting worse, and our neighborhood feels less safe now than when we bought our house six years ago. It's not a place I can see letting our kids roam around anytime soon, nor do they have any friends' houses to walk to nearby, and that all makes me sad. The area has its benefits for sure, but more and more I feel like it's not where I want to be raising children. On the other hand, my job and my school are a really bright spot, especially with Rose in first grade there and loving it.

We talk regularly about how to move elsewhere, and where, and when, but I feel like it's reached a new pitch this year. I'd definitely be sad to leave my job, but otherwise I'm very ready to move on, and M is increasingly dissatisfied with his job. He's got an interview for a job in Kansas in a couple of weeks, which I was initially not thrilled about, but I've come around to it and am now more or less hoping that it comes through -- which, of course, is still a pretty long shot at the moment.

So I guess that's my biggest hope for 2019: a move to Kansas, or failing that, another job that would take us somewhere else. Ideally somewhere further north and/or east (closer to my family and colder weather), or else out of the country altogether...

The girls are growing by leaps and bounds, and are mostly delightful. Rose (6) is quite strong-willed (much like I was as a child, as my mother loves to remind me) and continues to challenge us, I mean teach us, to learn how to parent with both compassion and firmness. Jane (3) is much calmer and more willing to go with the flow. I have to say, her threenager stage is SO much easier than Rose's was (thank god!).

I can't think of any big news. We took a few small trips, mostly to visit family. We are all in basically good health, although M has persistent sleep issues that I wish we could get a better handle on. (Yes, he finally did a sleep study, which resulted in him getting a CPAP that he hates and isn't convinced he needs.) Still have all our parents with us, and our cats.

It's been a year. Here's to forward motion in the year to come!