Looking Back at 2019

New Year’s celebrations around the world (internet photos).

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, and the second decade of the 21^st Century comes to an end. (I initially wrote “first decade” there…clearly the last 10 years have been a blur.)

Reading back over my posts toward the end of last year, I wrote one in November, nothing in December, and my annual recap was well into January. So I wasn’t writing a whole lot. This year, I can confidently say that I am in a much happier place; 2018 was an extremely difficult year, but 2019 has been a pretty smooth ride by comparison.

Here’re the big ticket items from the last 12 months:

January – Government shut down and four weeks of mandatory vacation.
March – Two visits from overseas friends.
May – Trip to Phoenix to visit long-time friend/college roommate. Divorce final.
June – Trip to the beach.
July – Two trips to Fredericksburg to visit transitioning FS friends.
August – Visit from Florida friend and Antarctic friend. Got pneumonia, cancelled trip to Alaska to see family…booo.
September – Kiddo turned 9 and started 4^th grade. Bidding started for our next post.
October – Trip to Annapolis. Bidding ended, accepted handshake for Geneva…yay!
November – Trip to Williamsburg with A’s class. A accepted into international school in Geneva. Trip to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving with cousin and family.
December – Christmas staycation in DC.

So it’s been a pretty good year all around. Even the dog and cat are getting along…lol. So this year I have TWO bottles of champagne chilling in the fridge. Technically one is supposed to be for my birthday later this week, but we’ll see how long it lasts.

Aside from drinking champagne, other personal New Year’s Eve traditions include: watching international fireworks celebrations online for different time zones around the world and watching as much of the televised coverage of the ball dropping in Times Square as possible (there are three different shows on NBC, Fox, and ABC)…although I don’t usually last until the main event at midnight. I did stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve watching season 2 of Lost in Space though, so anything is possible.

My mother used to love to watch the Tournament of Roses Parade, so I might give that a whirl on Wednesday morning. Some people eat special meals…my ex-husband used to like corned beef and cabbage. I love Deviled Eggs any time…smoked salmon and capers…I think it’s going to be an hors d’oeuvres-only kind of day. Eventually I may actually leave the house and socialize, but probably not till A is older, or I have found a trusted sitter.

I also like to read my annual horoscope for the year in Elle magazine. 🙂 Regardless of how accurate it is, I am pretty excited about what 2020 is going to bring!