You may have worked out that I’m not really a Christmas person, but I am rather fond of New Years.  In fact, I have a substantial collection of them.  I don’t make New Year Resolutions;  I consider that to be Tempting Fate.  I celebrate if I don’t have to make New Year Restitutions.  Indeed, I prefer to dwell on the Old Year rather than the New.  (Not like those appalling TV shows: “The Year in Review”– I mean, they went on about the events way too much the first time around.)  This is nothing like that.  I just thought I’d share with you my little list of things that help me to evaluate the past year.  It isn’t an inspiring list of things to be grateful for–I truly admire people who can write such lists without going red in the face.  I have a great deal to be thankful for, and for that I am deeply thankful.  Every single day.   But this list is just my way of reviewing some of the things I’m … well, relieved about for the past year.  In no special order importance:

It’s Been a Good Year IF:

1. I managed to find  everything I’ve lost (Oops!)
2. I made at least one new friend
3. I didn’t lose any friends (see #1)
4. Someone, somewhere, was better off because of me (Banks and the Tax Office do not count)
5. No one was worse off because of me (Oops!  Sorry about the Australian dollar back in May…)
6. I can still laugh at myself (I always like to get in first on that)
7. I haven’t had to unpack any of my fat clothes  (Oops!)
8. I haven’t been put in the Express Lane at the Medical Center
9. I haven’t heard an accordion once
10. I finished as many quilts as I started  (Oops!)
11. I learned at least one new skill, and it doesn’t include how to wax a mustache
12. I didn’t try to walk through a glass window or door (Don’t laugh; that can be a problem  for those of us who aren’t accustomed to watching where we’re going.  That’s all I’m going to say about that.)
13. I mastered at least one new recipe (Frog-in-a-Pond and Fairy Bread do not count)  This year’s triumph was Jalepeno Jelly   🙂
14. Lazarus is still alive, preferably with as many leaves as a year ago
15. I tried at least one new food (whether I liked it or not)
16. I didn’t fling my computer out the second storey window
17. I didn’t fling my cats out the second storey window  (Sophie came close)

 I didn’t bat 1000, but–as Old Blue Eyes sings, It Was  a Very Good Year  — even if my list isn’t as lyrical as his.     I hope you’ve had a good year, too.  And here’s to 2011!             MM